


Nightwing'd!

by Jaecheondaeseong



Series: his soul reborn [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Grayson (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Teen Titans (Animated Series), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Dick Grayson is Robin, Dick Grayson-centric, Gen, Humor, Hurt Dick Grayson, Tim Drake is Robin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-07-17 09:03:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16092410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaecheondaeseong/pseuds/Jaecheondaeseong
Summary: Nightwing is put into a coma after a battle, and might die. By delving into his mind, his teammates, his siblings, and Batman have to try to find his subconscious so that they can wake him up. Will they manage to help Nightwing come back to the land of the living? Takes place before Kaldur and Artemis infiltrate the light and before Kid Flash dies; Impulse is already part of the Team.





	1. An AK-47 did that?

Nightwing ducked under a thug's swinging metal pipe and thrust an escrima stick under said man's chin while sweeping his legs out. As the person toppled to the ground heavily the vigilante quickly knocked him unconscious with a sharp fist to the temple. With that opponent down, Nightwing whirled to face several more goons preparing to attack him.

"Miss Martian, mind link!" Nightwing hollered towards where he thought (and knew) where the martian was. Sure enough, a soft presence brushed gently against his mind. Allowing it to enter shallowly just enough to be able to communicate, Nightwing proceeded to kick thug butt.

 _"Mind link is up,"_  came M'gann's mental voice.

 _"Great. So, 'Wing, what do we do? We're pretty much surrounded by, like, fifty goons! And not to mention: no closer to where the actual child auctioneer is,_ " Beast Boy complained.

 _"I have a suggestion,"_  Robin suddenly said.

 _"What? We need a new plan right now, and currently my mind is completely empty of those very things,"_  Nightwing mentally responded as he made quick work of the men in front of him. He scanned the battlefield and spotted each of his teammates: Batgirl, Robin, Miss Martian, Kid Flash, Impulse, Beast Boy, Aqualad, Artemis, Superboy, Blue Beetle, and Zatanna.

_"A group will create a diversion - say, an explosion at the far side of the field - and knowing that these men are kind of dumb-looking, they will obviously run to the explosion to see what happened. Meanwhile, the other group can run into the building to go deal with the boss."_

_"I hate this dude,"_  Impulse whined in everybody's head.  _"Too much protection! So not crash."_

 _"Well, he_ is _a big boss person,"_  Artemis reasoned.  _"If I were one, then I'd totally want to have as much protection as I can from vigilantes in tights and from rival dealers."_

 _"I don't wear tights."_  Superboy grumbles at Artemis's comment. Then he caught sight of Professor Ivo who had just joined the fight with his MONQIS.  _"I_ HATE _monkeys!"_  He roared (luckily he roared out loud and not mentally, or everyone would have been distracted) and began attacking the small, madly giggling robotic monkeys in a frenzy.

 _"Alright! Impulse, Batgirl, and Kid Flash, set off some explosions far away from the entrance, next to those crates under the weird dead trees-"_  Nightwing mentally sent a picture of crates under scraggly, bare trees straight out of a horror movie-  _"And Miss Martian, Superboy, Robin, and Blue Beetle, follow me in. The rest of you, keep fighting."_

Following Nightwing's orders, Impulse, Batgirl, and Kid Flash quickly arrived at their designated area next to the creepy trees and began sticking mini explosives everywhere they could as fast as possible (which wasn't hard in Wally's case). The remaining eight covered them as best they could, driving the men away from the busy three. Then, a few seconds later, the trees and crates went  _BOOM_  in an epic explosion.

Calling out in a foreign language, a big buff dude - most likely the leader - waved a bulky arm at the explosion.

 _"Stupid idiot. He just ordered half his thugs to go check out the explosion because apparently whatever was in those crates were important."_  Nightwing rolled his eyes both mentally and physically.  _"Okay. You guys know what to do now."_

And with that, he shoved the goon in front of him to the ground, and jumping over the man, quietly ran into the building with Robin, Miss Martian, Superboy, and Blue Beetle following on his heels.

 _"The dealer is located in the seventh room on the right in the left passage,"_  Miss Martian informed the others in the building with her.

Nightwing mentally nodded.  _"Superboy, how many heartbeats can you hear?"_

After a few seconds, Superboy replied,  _"Twelve."_

_"Okay, here's the deal. Blue Beetle, Superboy, and I will go in to take him out. Robin, go through the vents and hide in the opening in that room in case we need backup. Miss Martian, just follow us in invisibility mode."_

_"Roger,"_  everyone muttered in their heads, and as Robin swept into a nearby ventilation shaft while Miss Martian disappeared from view, Blue Beetle, Superboy, and Nightwing soon approached the door.

Dramatically kicking down the rotting, wooden door, Nightwing stomped grandly inside. "Ha! I opened the blast doors!"

 _"..."_  was intelligently thought by the thugs and the child auctioneer inside the room and broadcasted into the vigilantes' heads via M'gann, before Nightwing and the two male heroes beside him charged without warning. Instantly a battle broke out, and meanwhile Miss Martian and Robin still hid.

 _"Do you need help?"_  Robin asked, worried, when Blue Beetle was nearly brought down by three thugs attacking him simultaneously.

 _"Nah, hermano,"_  Blue Beetle casually replied as he threw the thugs off and began kicking their butt.  _"I got this."_

 _"Yah, this is nothing~"_ Nightwing cheerfully cut in, whacking a goon in the head with an escrima stick while hurling the other one with its electricity crackling on at another man attempting to sneak up on him without even turning around.. _"Gotham is ten times worse than this."_

 _"That's true,"_  Robin agreed.

 _"Professor Ivo is still here. I wanna kill his effing MONQIS - every single one of them! They make me mad."_  Guess who said that. (Superboy.)

For the rest of the short fight, everyone was silent on the mental link. Out loud, however, there were small groans and gasps of pain as Nightwing, Superboy, and Blue Beetle fought their way through the group of goons to the panicking child auctioneer. Said person was wielding a AK-47, but seemed to not have a clue how to use it. Unfortunate for the dealer and his goons, but fortunate to the heroes. Finally, unconscious bodies littered the room.

The child auctioneer, who should have left during the fight, didn't, and was now regretting it as now Nightwing was striding briskly towards him while Superboy and Blue Beetle began tying up the lifeless men. Miss Martian and Robin were still in hiding.

"Alright, where are the children?" Nightwing demanded, Bat-glaring at the the auctioneer.

"I-I-I ain't telling!" the auctioneer stammered fearfully. He stumbled backwards.

"Really?" Bat-glare intensifies, borderline deadly.

"Uh..."

"You know, that some way or another, you  _will_  tell me? Or, of course, I guess there  _is_  the option of just blowing up this building - which is oh so conveniently your  _base_  which took a lot of hard work, too - and finding out the more...  _difficult_ way. So what's your choice?" Bat-glare intensifies even more, barely fitting the casual, almost joyous tenor that Nightwing took on in his voice.

"Okay! Fine! I'll tell!" The child auctioneer was trembling in his boots, sweating profusely as the vigilante's glare made its point. "They're in the boxes... behind you."

The Bat-glare fades away (for now). "Good." Nightwing turned- and the guy's AK-47 suddenly hit his head in a very powerful hit, causing a sharp crack to echo around the room.

Falling down, Nightwing dimly heard a  _"NIGHTWING!!"_  before his head impacted heavily with the ground and empty darkness swamped his vision.


	2. Yeah, Good Idea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightwing is put into a coma after a battle, and might die. By delving into his mind, his teammates, his siblings, and Batman have to try to find his subconscious so that they can wake him up. Will they manage to help Nightwing come back to the land of the living? Takes place before Kaldur and Artemis infiltrate the light and before Kid Flash dies; Impulse is already part of the Team.

"NIGHTWING!!" Robin hollered when his eldest brother toppled like an unstable tower of blocks. Not giving a single whit about the plan anymore, he hopped out of his vent and angrily charged the boss/auctioneer dude who was laughing. "You-!" Ripping away the dude's gun dripping with Nightwing's blood, he proceeded calling the baddie every bad word/name he could think of - even in different languages - and punched the living daylights out of him. Not satisfied enough, he began kicking and walloping the child auctioneer with his bo staff as well.

"Robin!" Miss Martian said sternly as she took off her cloak's hood and her camouflage faded, gently tugging said vigilante away from the now bloody man. "We must call the police in this city and then care to Nightwing. Leave him."

Giving one last glare to the unconscious auctioneer, Robin ran to Nightwing. His brother seemed to be in terrible shape, the deep gash above the right ear bleeding profusely as well as the other wounds Nightwing had received earlier outside. Robin desperately tried to stanch the man's bleeding head wound with shaking heads and looked up at Miss Martian. "Levitate him to the Bioship!"

"Yes, you and Robin bring Nightwing to the Bioship and Superboy and I will drag the men out." Aqualad appeared next to Nightwing, and after frowning a bit at the extent of the leader's injuries, turned to Superboy. "Come, Superboy."

While Miss Martian levitated Nightwing, Robin ran through the passages of the building, impatient to get his closest friend medical care. He ran out into a cloud-filled day, and ignoring his teammate's questions, raced onto the Bioship and took out the First-Aid supplies. He heard faint gasps outside and an exclamation from Batgirl as Miss Martian soon flew in as well, Nightwing floating close behind.

"How serious is the head wound?" Robin asked, worried as he knew how serious and damaging head wounds could be. Miss Martian set the floating vigilante down and placed her hand on Nightwing's forehead. Her eyes glowed bright green, and when the light died down, Miss Martian let out a half-sob.

"It's very serious," she said quietly and sadly. Robin stifled a cry and grabbed some bandages.

Their teammates - excluding Aqualad and Superboy - suddenly ran into the Bioship and to them. "What happened??" Batgirl demanded.

"Nightwing got hit in the head with a sharp AK-47," Robin muttered as he patched up his brother's wounds on his torso. He had wrapped the gash and around Nightwing's head with white gauze that was rapidly becoming red.

"AK-47s are  _not_  that sharp!" Kid Flash whisper-yelled, not finding the strength to actually yell.

Aqualad came into the Bioship with Superboy on his tail. "The police have arrived and are now taking control. Miss Martian, please begin flying the Bioship back to Mount Justice."

"Yes, of course." Miss Martian hastily made her way to the control seat and placed her hands on the white orbs in front of her. The Bioship's hatch closed shut and as the organic red alien ship rose into the air, the Team sat tensely beside their leader - impatiently waiting to get back. "ETA seven minutes."

Even before the Bioship had touched the Mountain's hangar's ground, Superboy had already - yet carefully - picked Nightwing up bridal style and ran out of the Bioship, whose hatch was also already opened. Running next to Superboy and past Black Canary and Batman, Robin raced to the medical bay. Time was running out for the black and blue hero; his bandages, wound tight around his head, was more red then it was white. They'd had to change the bandages three times on the trip back, and already Nightwing was unusually pale from blood loss and his breathing was shallow.

"What happened?" Batman growled, repeating Batgirl's words from before. He was now in DaddyBats mode, and the Team knew how formidable the mode could be.

"The auctioneer dude smacked Nightwing in the head with his AK-47," Beast Boy blubbered through his waterworks.

"He might die." Miss Martian now let her tears spill out as well after she revealed this big piece of information.

"What?" Black Canary sounded incredulous. "There is no way a AK-47 is that sharp to make a gash that big and seriously damaging."

"That's what Wally said," Zatanna murmured, gesturing to said vigilante. Her eyes were red and her breathing were mostly sniffles, since she knew that there was a big chance that her ex-boyfriend wouldn't make it.

"Mission debriefing will be later. Go clean up." With that, Batman swept out of the room and stormed in the direction his third protégé and Superboy had gone.

"I need to have time by myself," Black Canary said, striding away. She was awfully confused and angry. Her little bird, heck the  _Justice League's,_  little bird could die soon. Darn the Batfamily members, they always seemed so invincible and impossible to kill. Yet now the bright and inspiring ex-Robin seemed so extremely vulnerable, and this entire situation, as Nightwing would phrase it in Robin-ese language five years ago, was so not asterous.

"Will he really die?" Artemis asked, voice quiet as her brain struggled to accept the fact that her little brother was in critical condition. She shouldn't have been, seeing as she was once an assassin-in-training and had killed a few people before the age of twelve  **(A/N: pretty sure that's not true)**. People dying was not new to her; but yet, she was heartbroken about this particular one. Speaking of assassins, when Nightwing was Robin, he had trusted her with his and the original Team's lives even after knowing her family relations. Although she did not reveal her "family business" to the founders until almost a year after the Team was formed and she had joined, he still trusted her enough to not expose her. Instead, he had only smirked at her, and after a light comment about her family, cartwheeled away while Artemis stared after him with shock and bewilderment. Artemis now felt a sharp pang in her heart as she remembered that day. If Nightwing did not survive, she might not be able to make any more memories with him anymore. Inwardly she began praying to all the gods she'd never believed in before with all her heart that Dick would survive this. He  _had_  to.

"He has only a 37% survival rate," Miss Martian managed to speak between sobs.

"He  _has_  to make it," Kid Flash said grimly. "No - he  _will_. He's strong enough. He will... right?" He sounded uncertain after his own question.

"I hope so. I really, really hope so," Batgirl replied, green eyes dull and glaring at the wall.

"Team, we can only wait for now. Let us go change into our civilian clothing and then meet up again on the couch to discuss what went wrong on the mission," Aqualad said gently to his teammates, although his voice was also heavy with anticipation and pain. He repeated, "We can only wait."

"He's in a coma," Batman announced grimly - well, more than usual - to the Team.

"Medical or self-induced?" Impulse asked, scared for Nightwing's life.

"Self-induced," Batman ground out, his voice a deep growl. "I have postponed the debriefing for tomorrow. Go rest." Once more he left the room as Superboy and Robin joined the others.

"So... will he survive?" Blue Beetle asked Robin and Superboy.

Behind her back, Wondergirl crossed her fingers hopefully and prayed to her Amazonian gods.

"... Most likely not," Robin said hesitantly. Then, he promptly burst into tears and collapsed onto Batgirl. Bumblebee gave a gasp at this new and unwelcome news, as did the rest of the Team, and they all soon began to let loose the waterworks too.

"There must be something we can do!" Kid Flash cried, wringing his hands at a fast pace. "We can't just give up hope; there  _has_  to be something to help Nightwing, surely."

"Yeah," Superboy agreed curtly. " _He_  wouldn't give up on any of us. So we shouldn't give up hope for him, too. There should be something that can be done to wake him up."

"Well..." Miss Martian bit her lip. She seemed reluctant to give out the information she was holding in - yet it was at the tip of her tongue, pleading to be spilled out to the others. Artemis stared desperately at her.

"What? What is it?" the blonde demanded in a pleading - and although she wouldn't admit it, begging - tone. "Please tell us, M'gann!"

"There is this Martian practice," Miss Martian said slowly, "Where we delve into the minds of those in a coma. We find their subconscious, and then after waking it up, they will wake up physically as well. It is called-" here she rattled off a Martian name that sounded like gibberish "-and although rarely used as it can cause a case of amnesia, it has a 65% chance of working."

"So it has been done before?" Robin demanded. If it could save Nightwing, then he was willing to do it - even if it caused amnesia. At least amnesia could be curable, but death was not (unless he threw Dick into the Lazarus Pits like what happened with Jason, the Red Hood, but he doubted that his eldest brother would want that; truthfully, neither did he) and there was really a decent chance of successfully saving Nightwing.

"Yes, but it has not been done in the time that I've been alive, which is around a century," Miss Martian admitted. "Although that is not a long time in Martian years, and Mars is a rather peaceful planet. So there are really never any severe comas."

"Are you able to do this practice?" Aqualad asked. This was a quite lucky chance, perhaps the only one available as to now - and he should take it while he still could.

"I don't know. But Uncle J'onn has always said that I was a more powerful Martian than him."

"Then do it," Wondergirl said. "... Please?" she added as an afterthought.

"Please," Batgirl repeated.

Miss Martian nodded, albeit rather hesitantly. "I will try. But Nightwing is very strong... he might subconsciously shove me out of his mind, asleep or not."

"Then take me with you." Everyone jumped when Batman suddenly spoke from behind them. They turned towards the voice and the black-armored vigilante stepped out of the shadows. "He will most likely recognize me. He will not push me out."

"No." Now the Team and Batman turned to Kid Flash. "No," he repeated. "Take us  _all_  with you."

"Why?" Batman snapped. "That would be too much people; he could become mentally stressed."

"He won't, he's too strong," Kid Flash argued. "With us all, he will not be able to push you guys out. You said Nightwing would  _most likely_  recognize you; so there is still a fair chance that he will  _not_  let down his barriers for you and will still push you guys out of his mind. With us all, he can't set up strong enough barriers and we'll most certainly gain access into his mind."

"..." Everyone stared at Batman pleadingly, making their best puppy-dog eyes.

"Plus, we  _are_  his teammates and we will not abandon him while he is on the verge of death," Artemis wheedled. "He would do the same for us, so we will respect him and do it for him."

"... Fine," Batman finally said after a few seconds of deep thinking. "But I will lead as I know him best."

"Yes, sir," Kid Flash said. "Now come on!" He was gone in a blur of yellow, and Impulse soon followed. Everyone ran as fast as they could after the two speedsters to the infirmary, unwilling to lose more time. Nightwing's life was in their hands - they wanted to save him.

_Recognized:_

_Red Hood, A-04._

_Spoiler, A-05._

_Black Bat, A-06._

_Guest Robin, A-07._

"Who are those people?" Bumblebee questioned as the Team and Batman (Impulse and Kid Flash were already at Dick's bed) slowed down to look back at the Zeta Tubes.

"Isn't the Red Hood a criminal?" Zatanna asked, confused. "How and why is he allowed in here?"

"Because I wanna save my big bro's life," Red Hood replied evenly, sauntering over to the Team. His bright red helmet shone in the bright white lights of the Mountain, and behind him were two girls and a short boy. A girl was dressed entirely in eggplant purple and a hood and full face mask hid her face in shadows. The other girl was dressed almost like Batgirl, except everything was black save the bat symbol emblem and her utility belt. She was wearing an eye mask instead of a cowl, and her shoulder-length black hair was strewn messily behind her head. Then there was the short boy. He wore what looked like a Robin costume with a green domino mask. However, a hood was drawn over his head and he wore green gloves and green combat boots.  **(A/N: Red Hood - Jason Todd, Spoiler - Stephanie Brown, and Black Bat - Cassandra Cain look like the ones in the Batman comics, and Guest Robin (at least, that's what I'm calling him now) - Damian Wayne looks like the one in Batman vs. Robin.)**

"'Big bro'?" Artemis echoed, bemused.

"Tt," the Robin look-alike sniffed. "Yes, the idiot that is almost dead is our older brother. Brow- Spoiler hacked the cameras - it was fairly simple, you should update the security - and we listened to your boring conversation. We decided to come and help save our brother as well."

"Yeah, you can't stop us." Spoiler's face was hidden, but everyone got the feeling that she was glaring particularly at Batman. Said hero sighed.

"Alright. But I'm leading. Come on."

They finally made it to the medial bay.

"Geez, what took you so long?" Kid Flash complained, but then he saw the newcomers. "Uh..."

"Ooh, it's those people, they're so crash!" Impulse fangirled (...fanboyed?).

"Miss Martian, begin the process," Batman growled, ignoring the fangirl/fanboying males.

"Yes, sir." The Martian set her hand on Nightwing's forehead and then they were all sucked into the vigilante's mind.


	3. Why I'm Robin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightwing is put into a coma after a battle, and might die. By delving into his mind, his teammates, his siblings, and Batman have to try to find his subconscious so that they can wake him up. Will they manage to help Nightwing come back to the land of the living? Takes place before Kaldur and Artemis infiltrate the light and before Kid Flash dies; Impulse is already part of the Team.

The Team and the Batfamily woke up to find themselves inside of a bubble.

"What the heck??" La'gaan growled. He threw a punch at the curved wall of the bubble, but it didn't budge.

"Is this like a mental barrier or something?" Impulse questioned Miss Martian.

"No." Miss Martian looked at the bubble thoughtfully. "But we won't be able to get out of here ourselves."

"So we have to wait for something to happen?" Red Hood clarified.

"Being impatient, Hood?" Spoiler teased, although it seemed a bit half-hearted.

"Never was a strong trait of his," Black Bat murmured in amusement.

"Tt. Obviously." Guest Robin drew out a katana and began stabbing at the bubble to kill time.

"Whoa, how do you have a  _katana?_ " Wondergirl exclaimed in surprise. "Don't those... like, you know, kill people?"

Guest Robin sniffed. "I am of royal blood, the heir to the Demon's Head. This was a gift from Mother."

"Wait," Artemis said. "The Demon's Head; isn't that Ra's al Ghul, the leader of the League of Shadows?" Everyone gasped and shot wary glances at the short boy.

"Yes," was all the boy said and then silence fell upon the group.

A few minutes later, Impulse and Kid Flash began vibrating in their seats.

"What is wrong?" asked Aqualad, ever the caring and worried team member.

"We're... claustrophobic," Kid Flash admitted. "See, we like - and  _need_  - to run around. That's our specialty, our ability. We can't run in closed spaces, so now this bubble's feeling suffocating and tight."

Suddenly there was a cackle from outside the bubble. "Remember the first time I locked you up in a closet, KF? You panicked and managed to vibrate out, but because your nose began bleeding all over the place, Flash screamed and babied you!"

"I hate you, Robin," Kid Flash groaned, but then he froze in shock. "Wait, dude,  _Robin??_ "

The current Robin sitting between Superboy and Batgirl looked at Kid Flash, confused. "What?"

"Not you! Robin, you little ninja! Let us out!" Kid Flash began thumping at the bubble, screeching.

Another cackle. "What's the magic word~?" the voice asked in a sing-song voice.

"You troll!" Artemis suddenly laughed out, now recognized the familiar cackle she hadn't heard in many years.

Zatanna grinned as well, catching on. Soon the original Team and Red Hood were smirking with their hidden knowledge, while Batman - also recognizing his eldest son - only grumbled, though the tips of his mouth drew up the slightest bit - the beginnings of a smile.  **(A/N: Just to be clear, only the YJ Team founders and the Batfamily - including Batgirl - know Nightwing's secret ID.)**

"Is the magic word... asterous?" Superboy said aloud, grinning a bit when he remembered the time when Robin and he were on motorcycles going after Amazo on the Ivo mission and Robin had used the word on him. Sure enough, the bubble vaporized and everyone fell out.

"Dude!" Kid Flash bellowed, standing up quickly, and suddenly he was enveloping a small raven-haired person in his long arms. "Robin!"

"Who the hell is he, and why are you calling him Robin?" the current YJ Team Robin was scowling, helping Wondergirl and Bumblebee up from the ground.

"Hiya, Timmy!" the 'Robin' dubbed dude exclaimed happily, flashing a smile. He stepped away from Kid Flash and smirked at all of them in all his (short) glory.

Current Robin  **(A/N: I'm just going to call Tim Drake Robin 'Current Robin' and Dick Grayson Robin 'Past Robin', this is getting confusing for me)**  blinked slowly. "You know my name?"

"Yah! I was the first Robin!"

"Oh... you're Nightwing when he was still Robin!" Wondergirl snapped her fingers as she came to a realization.

Everyone gave  _oohs_  and  _ahs_  of awe and surprise as they stared at the black, yellow, and red clothed preteen in front of them.

"What're you here for?" When Kid Flash opened his mouth to speak, Past Robin merely stared hard at the ginger and then went on without giving the speedster a chance to speak. "Oh, you're doing a Martian thing to wake Nightwing up from a coma, huh?"

When everyone openly gaped at him, he smirked some more - if possible - and flippantly said, "Protégé of the World's Greatest Detective, guys. So, I'm really whelmed right now and all that but-"

"Robin?" a new voice called out, from a passage far away from the group. They were very positive that it hadn't been there before, and the footsteps that were steadily approaching caused them to fall into defensive stances. However, Past Robin made a gesture at them to make them drop the stances.

"Yeah?"

"Who're you talking to?"

"You'll just have to come and see for yourself." A touch of trolling amusement dripped from Past Robin's voice.

"... Okay." Finally someone turned the corner. The person blinked at the sight of them, and the Team and Batfamily did the same.

In front of them was a thirteen-year-old Dick Grayson in an expensive Armani suit. "..." Said celebrity was speechless, and then he narrowed his eyes at Past Robin. "Alright, what are they doing here??"

"We are here to save your sorry rear from death, Grayson," Guest Robin snapped.

"What he said," Past Robin said in cheerful agreement.

"Oh, then we'll have to take them to the Maestru," said the Dick Grayson, his head cocked to the right as his icy azure blue eyes stared at the newcomers thoughtfully.

"Whoever the guy is, just bring us to him. And then we'll save Nightwing, blah blah blah, and then we'll leave. Agreed?" Red Hood unlatched his helmet and held it under his left arm. Still wearing the inner red domino mask and ignoring the other's mutters, he held out his right hand.

"Agreed... Jaybird." Dick let slip a cackle at Red Hood's surprised facial expression and shook the offered hand firmly instead. "Follow me."

As they walked behind Past Robin and Past Dick Grayson **(A/N: eh you understand this labeling thing now I hope)** , the newer teammates were asking questions.

"Was Nightwing always so short as Robin?" Bumblebee asked quietly, her head buzzing **(A/N: no pun intended)**  with the new knowledge that her leader was actually the first Robin and had never been that tall of a person he was now.

"Yeah," Batgirl snorted fondly, remembering the nerdy and graceful acrobat she used to be best friends with - and still was. "He was also really nerdy."

"What do you mean?" La'gaan asked, not fully understanding.

"You haven't figured it out? Robin and Nightwing... they're the same person as Dick," Batman said gruffly.

"Whoa," Wondergirl exclaimed, slightly bouncing on her feet as she and the others continued striding down the extremely long hallway thing. "Our leader is the really cute ward of Bruce Wayne?"

"Hey! Then that makes you..." Beast Boy held up a shaking finger pointing at Batman, unable to finish his sentence.

"Bruce Wayne!" Impulse finished for Beast Boy. Guest Robin frowned up at Batman.

"Father, should you have really told them?"

"They would have eventually found out as we go deeper into Dick's mind," Batman responded in a deep tone. "So I just got it over with."

"That makes sense," Spoiler said, and Black Bat nodded.

"And you guys must be Tim, Jason, Stephanie, Cassandra, and Damian Wayne!" Beast Boy went on, fangirl/boying as he pointed to each of the mentioned people one by one with his still quivering finger.

"Guys, we're here!" Past Dick Grayson suddenly yelled at them. Speeding up their pace, they stopped close behind the two similar - as they could now see - teens. In front of them was a dark silver door, shimmering in the bright yet warm light of... floating candles.

"This could be a scene or something in a Harry Potter movie." Kid Flash laughed. "You know, the floating candles and a random door in the middle of nowhere."

"Huh," Past Robin said. "Okay, from now on you can all be as chalant as you like. But if you just stay traught, then nothing will go wrong. Just play it good."

"I forgot about how you loved to butcher the English language," Miss Martian said affectionately, and she let out a small peal of laughter. "Lead the way in, Robin, Dick."

"Asterous!" Robin and Dick pulled open the door, and the Team and Batfamily followed the two in.

When they got in, the door automatically closed by itself. However, no one but Batman noticed and they peered at the room they were in. Everything was a light lilac purple, and pictures of what seemed like memories covered all available space, whether big or small, and each were playing. Speech could be heard emanating from them.

_"Hey, if like is the opposite of dislike, then is aster the opposite of disaster?"_

_"Let's do this."_

_"Agent 37, report."_

_"KF! Get over here!"_

_"Beware the Court of Owls..."_

_"Twinkle, twinkle little bat!"_

_"Titans, GO!"_

_"To hell with you, Slade!"_

_"Ha ha ha!"_

_"In my world, you are simply known as... Talon."_

_"So you're Batman now, huh?"_

_"Get traught or get dead!"_

_"Jay... you're alive?"_

_"I could use a hand."_

_"Damian, it's alright to feel emotions. It's normal."_

_"Renegade, you have a contract."_

_"Unhand me at once or I shall stab you through the throat with my katana!"_

_"Grayson, you are worthy of the mantle of Batman."_

_"ROBIN, WATCH OUT!!"_

_"You can call me Red X."_

_"I'm officially whelmed."_

_"You are destined to be my heir. To be The Talon. But as for now, I am your great grandfather, William Cobb."_

_"Let's hear the Boy Blunder sing! When will Batsy get here, I wonder?"_

_"I work alone now."_

_"Hello, Dick. My name's Bruce Wayne. Would you like to be adopted?"_

_"His real name... is Richard Grayson."_

_"This is your new brother, Jason."_

_"No one's gonna touch your tofu, grass stain!"_

_"We'll laugh about this someday."_

_"Way to get traught."_

_"Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!!"_

**(A/N: Okay, so as seen, Nightwing's going to have the memories from when he was a member of Young Justice, when he was the leader of the Teen Titans, when he was Slade/Deathstroke's apprentice: Renegade, when he was revealed to the world as Richard Grayson by the Crime Syndicate from another Dimension - Owlman, Thomas Wayne Jr. (that reality's Bruce's older brother) and Talon, also Richard Grayson of that universe - and "died", when he was Agent 37 in the Spyral organization, when he was The Talon for the Court of Owls, and when he was Batman, Damian being his Robin. But these memories are going to be of my own version.)**

However, a particular one drew all their attention to a rather large memory. In it was a tiny boy with black hair, who was covered in blood. His face was cupped in his small hands, and his shoulders were racking with violent sobs.

"This is what we have to go through to get to the Maestru." Past Dick gestured to the very memory shard. "We'll have to go through many more after this, and we'll collect a few others on the way."

"Others?" Impulse questioned. Beast Boy, from beside the speedster, seemed to be staring sadly at a small memory shard of a pale teenage girl with shoulder-length purple hair hidden in the depths of a dark purple cloak. He mouthed something like  _'Raven'_  and touched the memory softly.

"Yeah. The other personalities and the characters that Nightwing has once been," Past Robin responded casually. "You see, Nightwing kind of has Split-Personality Disorder."

"What?" Batman couldn't help but say. His son had not told him that. That was a pretty serious thing, especially since Nightwing had had  _many_  different personalities in his past - and several of those were murderous. And he did not, in fact, prepare a contingency plan for if those decided to resurface...

"He does," Past Dick said, turning to Batman. "But don't worry, he controls them very well. You won't need a contingency plan, I think." He added the last part, as if reading Batman's mind.

"Enough talk, we have to hurry or Nightwing will die." After saying this, Past Robin touched the memory, and they were all swept in.

When the heroes were aware of their surroundings once more, some of them were surprised to find themselves at a circus. A nearby poster had giant block letters spelling out " _Welcome to Haley's Circus_ ", and under it was a picture of a big top colored in yellow and red stripes. An elephant was shown beneath the words, balancing on a colorful ball with only its hind legs.

"I guess we're at Haley's Circus," La'gaan said in surprise.

"Yes, we are. This was Dick's home, in a way, since he was born. He was born to Mary and John Grayson, who were part of the Flying Graysons, a legendary act in this circus. They performed with John Grayson's brother, Richard "Rick" Grayson, and his family: Karla and John. As you can probably tell, Dick was named after his uncle. Now, the show's about to start, and since you'll probably want to watch the other acts before the... last and final act. Let's go in." The vigilantes filed into the big top and were bombarded with bright lights and loud music. There were many people wandering around, but their faces were blurred. Realizing this, Robin turned to the Past Robin.

"Why are all the faces blurred?"

"Because they are not important," the teen replied simply. He led the group to the middle of a clearing, where a rather tiny young raven-haired boy was looking around the crowd. His face was not blurred, so the visitors recognized him as the blood-covered boy they briefly glimpsed in the memory shard. The only difference now was that his green, red, and yellow leotard with the 'R' badge over his heart was not covered in blood. His beautiful blue eyes shone with barely contained happiness and excitement instead of the dull grief and shock that had draped the pale face of the blood-covered Dick in the memory shard.

"Is that Dick?" Bumblebee wondered aloud.

"Yeah, that is."

"What's he looking for?" Wondergirl spoke next.

"Nothing in particular, he's just excited," Past Dick explained.

"Ooh, look, that's Dick Grayson!" A young voice was heard, and the heroes turned around to see an even younger boy with black hair and bright blue eyes standing beside a similar-looking man and woman staring right at them.

Then, realizing that the boy was in fact looking  _through_  them and at the young Dick Grayson, they moved out of the way to watch the exchange.

"Yes, it is," the man next to the boy said. The mother, who was holding the boy's hand, was suddenly pulled forward by the younger towards young Dick.

"Hi!" the boy said happily when he was right in front of Dick. "I am a really big fan of you!" He was extremely straight to the point. "My name is Timothy Drake, but you can call me Tim."

"Hi," young Dick said right back. "I'd introduce myself, but you already know me so I don't think I need to. So you're going to watch the show tonight?"

"Yeah!" The younger boy, apparently Tim, beamed. "You guys are really good!"

"Thanks, but I'm not allowed to do the quadruple flip at the end of the act." Young Dick frowned in a disappointed manner. "My Mamă says I'm too young."

"Oh well, you're really good anyways."

"Thank you! I've been practicing my quadruple flip and managed to somehow master it. But even though I have, my parents still won't let me because I only did it just last week and we're not going to use a safety net throughout the entire act in case I fall. So they're not letting me."

"At least you can do the rest," Tim assured. Then his eyes brightened even further, if possible, and he looked excitedly up at his idol. "Can we take a picture?"

"Sure!" Dick drew Tim in with an arm while the latter's mother took out a camera. After snapping a photo, Dick pulled away from Tim. "Well, I hope you enjoy yourself tonight! I'll wave to you during the performance."

Tim squealed with more happiness than a five-year-old should have. "Okay! Bye!"

"Bye!" young Dick called back, already running in the opposite direction.

The superheroes in the memory began running after the memory's Dick. "That was you, wasn't it, Drake?" Guest Robin demanded.

Current Robin blushed. "Yeah. I thought he was really cool back then. And I still do."

"Can I have a copy of that picture?" Spoiler asked the boy.

"I want one too!" Pretty much all the girls were asking Current Robin for the picture. Said teen seemed overwhelmed by all of the begging, but said yes to all of them anyway.

Then they noticed that young Dick was slowing down. Braking along with the young boy, they began hearing parts of a conversation. Following the young Dick behind a nearby trailer, they saw as the boy melted into the shadows.

"Whoa, he could do that even before he became a Bat?" Kid Flash said, surprised.

"He was always a Bat," Batman said, a small tinge of pride coloring his low voice.

They somehow managed to pinpoint young Dick's location in the shadows creeping closer to where the conversation was happening.

"You need our protection!" a nasal voice was yelling at a rather pudgy old man in front of him.

"That's Pop Haley. He was like my grandfather, until..." Past Robin trailed off.

"Until?" Superboy frowned.

"Uh, that's another story for another time," Past Dick cut in. "You'll see why in a different memory."

"Oh, okay," Miss Martian said, curious herself.

"We do not! We are very well protected!" Pop Haley snarled at the man in front of him. As no one in the memory could see them, the group of vigilantes entered the clearing behind the trailers where dim moonlight lit up a small patch of grass, on which two men were standing. On the right was the old man they had seen earlier in the limited view next to the hiding younger Dick, but the owner of the nasal voice on the left was new. He was a skinny middle-aged man, with his mousy brown hair slicked back. His eyes were of different colors, one an ugly brown and the other a blunt blue. A jagged scar ran down the length of his face, crossing from his right side of his forehead over the nose to the back of his left jawline. Overall, he looked like any other criminal or bad person that would be regularly arrested.

"Anthony Zucco," Past Robin spat, disgust and anger taking hold of his already tense voice. "Otherwise known as Tony, the bastard who killed my parents."

The vigilantes beside him felt their eyes twitch, because of seeing the murderer of the Flying Graysons and because they had not believed that the first Robin, a rather carefree person, was overcome with so much rage. But they still understood. If their parents had been killed by that person, they would have wanted to strangle the man to death as well.

"If you do not accept our protection and pay up, then I will be forced to teach you a lesson," Tony Zucco warned in a furious tone. "And that lesson will not be pretty."

"Please, there's nothing that will make me pay for your so-called 'protection'." Pop Haley seemed to snort. "Now, my decision has been made. Get out of my circus! And don't come back, or I'll call the police on you!"

"Fine, but I warned you! There'll be no one to blame but you that way." Zucco stormed out of the clearing in a fury, unintentionally crashing right into young Dick, still hidden in the shadows. Stumbling out into the light from the impact, the younger Dick stared up at the mafia boss in fright, blue eyes wide. The boss, recovering from his surprise, glared down at young Dick. He gave a mocking sneer, the sick smile widening as the young boy flinched at the sight of it. "Hello, little boy, you'll wish that Haley had paid me for protection." Stepping around Dick while intentionally shoving his shoulder as he strode past, Tony Zucco began making his way out of the maze of parked trailers.

Young Dick nearly fell from the force of the shove, but Pop Haley got there in time to grab the young boy's shoulder to help regain the latter's balance.

"Pop Haley, who was that?" Dick asked softly, although his tiny and unusually timid voice quivered slightly.

"No one important." Pop Haley offered the eight-year-old a small smile. It seemed forced, however, and although young Dick looked unconvinced, the younger nodded anyways. "By the way, happy birthday."

"Wait, it was your birthday when your parents died??" Impulse asked Past Robin and the thirteen-year-old Dick Grayson in horror.

"Oh my God," Blue Beetle said, eyes wide. "I am sorry, hermano. That must have been the worst birthday ever. And shut up, Scarab." He addressed the last remark to the alien bug in his back, scowling at empty air.

"It was," Past Dick said blandly and emotionlessly. "Okay, we have to finish this memory to go on, remember. So let's just get it over with." With nods, the others paid attention to young Dick and Pop Haley again.

Young Dick nodded slowly to Pop Haley. "Good boy. Now, the show is about to start, so run along to your parents, Dick."

Following Pop Haley's orders, young Dick began running towards the big top. The heroes followed him in, but stopped suddenly when the young boy they were trailing did. They looked in the direction where the boy was looking in confusion, but the confusion faded from their eyes and were replaced by surprise and anger when they saw Zucco again. The mafia boss was fiddling with the trapeze ropes up above, and almost as soon as the others saw him he was crawling down the ladder of the platform again and was running away into the dark.

"Was that what I think it was?" Batgirl breathed, horrified as she realized just what the evil man did. Red Hood nodded, and although no one could see it, he was seething behind his red helmet and was mentally cursing Zucco for what he did.

"Yep, he did it," Black bat confirmed, voice taking on an angry tenor.

Young Dick was frowning, but a sudden hand clamping down on his shoulder for the second time that night made him jump. "What-!"

"Relax, Dickie, it's just me." A laugh followed the sentence, and the cause of it was an amused-looking teen of about fourteen or so that had ruffled black hair and bright blue eyes that, although attractive, were not as captivating as Dick's. "Man, someone's jumpy tonight."

"John!" Young Dick said, sounding embarrassed. He seemed to have forgotten about Zucco for the time being.

"He's just joking around, I'm sure." More people appeared behind John. There were two men who looked so alike that they had to be brothers, and two women: one blonde with Dick's blue eyes and the other a red-haired lady with sparkling blue eyes. They were all wearing emerald green leotards with golden 'G's emblazoned on the entire front side of them. The one who had spoken was the blonde lady. "We must go get ready now, Dick."

"I don't get why I have to wear this," young Dick complained, pulling at the collar of his leotard. "Why can't I just wear one like yours?"

"Now, your mother worked a very long time on that," one of the adult brothers said, his large hand gently patting young Dick on the head.

"You're wearing it because it makes people notice you, and because you look like a robin flying through the air." Young Dick's mother hugged him, her nose buried in the messy black hair of her child. " _My_  little robin."

Young Dick scowled at the phrase, although in an almost amused way. "Why a robin? People my age get laughed at with names like that."

"Would you rather we call you our flying squirrel?" Young Dick's father chuckled.

(The vigilantes struggled to hold in their laughter at this sentence.

"Yeah, why not?" Impulse snickered.)

"Um, no thanks." Suddenly young Dick seemed to remember Zucco. "Mami, Tati, I saw a man-"

"Tell us later, Dick," his mother interrupted. "After the performance, alright? But meanwhile, we're almost up."

At this, Beast Boy whined to Past Dick. "I thought you said we could watch the acts before the Flying Graysons went up!" He began to grumble in complaint.

Past Dick merely shrugged. "Change of plans."

Young Dick nodded hesitantly. "Okay, Mamă."

"Now come." The family began to walk out of the big top.

The heroes made to follow, but their surroundings suddenly blurred for a few seconds before settling once again. Now the empty seats all around the big top had a giant audience occupying them, the crowd cheering and roaring loudly in excitement. Their faces were still blurred, however.

"What happened?" Artemis asked.

"Time skip. Now it's the Flying Graysons' turn to perform," Past Robin said softly. They heard the pain in his voice, and were reminded that this was the last act his family was ever going to do. Giving him a short hug, they paid attention to the circus once more.

Pop Haley was now standing on a rather tall, circular platform on the ground of dirt. "Now for the last and most popular act of Haley's Circus, the Flying Graysons! They will perform without the safety of a net below to catch them if they fall!" The crowd cheered louder and whistles filled the stuffy yet cool air of the big top, and the lights of the tent swiveled to the platforms and trapezes at the top of the tent. There stood the Grayson family, waving happily to the audience before. Young Dick zeroed in on where young Tim Drake was and waved to him. The younger boy grinned at him in return, and he bounced in his seat. "First is John Grayson!" The named man grabbed the trapeze in front of him and jumped off the platform, swinging in a grand half circle through the air to the second trapeze, where he double flipped off his current trapeze and gripped the second one when he came to it instead. "And his beautiful wife, Mary Grayson! Joining them is their son, Dick Grayson! Look at them go!" As the two trapezists joined the swinging man on the trapezes, Pop Haley continued. "And with them is also John Grayson's brother, Rick Grayson! After him is Karla and John Grayson, his lovely family! Watch and enjoy the show! And don't try this at home!" Pop Haley added, amusement twinkling in his clear blue eyes.

Soon eyes were following the flying acrobats above,  _oohing_  at at the correct moments. Finally, some minutes later, young Dick was let off at a platform.

"It's nearing the end of the show, and the Flying Graysons are going to show their legendary quadruple flip! They are the only known people to be able to perform this move, so cheers are going to slip from your mouths as easy as water! Just you wait!" Pop Haley announced from the ground, and glued eyes were now widened with anticipation and obvious excitement as the Flying Graysons, excluding young Dick, began their quadruple flip act.

_Crick!_

The sound was loud and yet was still drowned by the numerous cheers echoing throughout the tent. However, the heroes heard it, and they looked in horror and terror at the bolts holding the trapeze ropes-

Wait.

The bolts.

There  _were no bolts holding the ropes in place!_

Young Dick managed to realize the same thing at the exact same time, and when his mother approached him on the trapeze, her hands reaching out, he screamed and held his hands out to try and catch his mother.

_Creak!_

_Criiick!_

Looking up, Mary saw the missing bolts as well and stared back at Dick in frozen horror as the ropes slipped free of the boltless rings and then she was falling, along with the rest of the Graysons still on the trapeze.

"DICK!!" Mary's panicked cry was heard from all over the tent as she and the others began falling, arms still reaching out for young Dick, her blonde ponytail streaming out from her head and pathetically snapping around in the rapidly moving air as gravity took hold of the acrobat's body.

"MAMĂ!!" Dick hollered back, and the audience screamed in fear as the crack and splat of bones and mangled bodies hit the ground seven stories below.

The vigilantes gasped in horror as Past Robin and Past Dick were silent, tears trickling down their faces in streams.

Meanwhile, young Dick was hastily clambering down the platform's ladder as fast as he could. The minute he touched the ground, he was sprinting to the broken bodies of his parents and relatives.

"Out, get out of this tent!" Pop Haley was shouting at the crowd, waving them out of the giant circus tent entrance. Obeying him, the shocked and scared people stampeded out, except for one man. His face was not blurred as the rest of the audience, and the heroes recognized him as Bruce Wayne the billionaire.

Young Dick slipped on the bloody ground and toppled onto his bloody family. "Mamă! Tata! Unchiule Rick, Mătușa Karla! Ioan! Trezește-te! Te rog, ridică-te! Nu mă părăsi! Am nevoie de tine, te rog! E ziua mea de naștere, nu mă poți lăsa acum! Trezește-te, nu e amuzant! Nu! Nuuuu !!! Vă rog..." The young boy then broke down and began sobbing, his family's red blood seeping into his leotard, but he couldn't have cared less.

**(A/N: WHAT HE SAID (although in Romanian b/c I couldn't find any Romani translators): "Mom! Dad! Uncle Rick, Aunt Karla! John! Wake up! Please, get up! Don't leave me! I need you, please! It's my birthday, you can't leave me now! Wake up, this isn't funny! No! NOOO!!! Please...")**

Although young Dick spoke in a different language, the heroes somehow understood the words and bowed their head in respect and sadness. Tears began leaking out of their own eyes as well, the deaths affecting them as well. How the first Robin had been so happy around them, they didn't know. But now they knew that the happy exterior had always just been a facade, and inside he was really a pain-filled, heartbroken mess.

"This is the reason why I became Robin," Past Robin suddenly said through his tears. "It was because I didn't want anyone else have to suffer the same way I did, to lose all they had in life so painfully and abruptly. I experienced the pain and sadness firsthand and didn't wish the same for anybody else. So I became Robin, a hero who helped others."

"Now I understand why you chose Robin to be your hero name," L'gaan said surprisingly softly, more than anyone had ever heard him before (besides M'gann, but they're dating so it doesn't count). "It was to honor your parents."

Suddenly the Bruce Wayne in the memory stepped off his seat and approached young Dick. Taking off his expensive jacket, he wrapped the young, depressed boy in the article of clothing and stepped away as police began swarming the scene. Pop Haley then walked slowly up to young Dick.

"Dick, come on, stand up," he said softly. When the boy didn't, he sighed. "I have to clean you up, and the police have to collect your family's... bodies."

The boy, after several more long minutes, then stood up with his head still staring down at the ground. A police officer then approached the two, with a woman at his side. She was obviously a social worker, and had come to take young Dick away.

"What happened was an accident," the police officer began. "The ropes were unbolted and that was the cause of their deaths."

The superheroes bristled. An accident? It was murder!

"I understand," Pop Haley said sadly. "It was a mistake. Usually we check the ropes before they go on, but we must have forgotten."

"It wasn't an accident," young Dick suddenly spoke up, still bowing his head.

"Excuse me?" The police officer narrowed his eyes at young Dick.

Young Dick looked up, a steely and frighteningly cold look in his dull and glazed blue eyes. Blood dripped off of him, creating an even scarier effect. "You heard me. It wasn't an accident. It was murder. There was a man. The man that was talking to Pop Haley before the show. I saw him, he was doing something to the ropes before the show. It was him.  _He_  killed them!" He suddenly exploded, yelling the last part in a furious and almost murderous tone.

"Tony Zucco?" Pop Haley said, visibly surprised. "Are you sure, son?"

"Very," young Dick said, voice unnaturally cold and emotionless once again. The superheroes shivered at this. A child that young shouldn't have sounded like that; so empty, so lifeless.

"Hmm. Okay, I'll write that down," the officer said, but it felt like he was trying to shut young Dick up than actually sincerely meaning it. "Now, go with Ms. Miranda here. She'll bring you to an orphanage because you don't have any living relatives anymore. Well, your uncle is actually in a coma with his body paralyzed from the waist down, but he won't be able to take care of you that way."

"I'm actually going to take him to the Juvenile Detention Centre," Ms. Miranda said, which elicited angry murmurs from the vigilantes. A juvenile detention centre? Dick had done nothing wrong! "All the orphanages are full."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Pop Haley said, "There's no need for that. We can take good enough care of him here in the circus."

"The circus is hardly a suitable place for a child to be taken care of," Ms. Miranda snapped.

"And the Juvenile Detention Centre is?" Pop Haley countered. "Besides, he's too young to go there! The others are going to-"

"They're going to accept him," Ms. Miranda interrupted coldly. "He deserves to be shut in the detention centre anyway; he's a gypsy, and those damn kinds of people are nasty thieves."

"WHAT THE HELL!" Pretty much the entirety of the heroes yelled, and although they couldn't touch people in a memory, they wanted to beat the crap out of the rude, racist social worker and then curse her to the depths of hell.

"The nerve of that fucking woman!" Red Hood snarled. "The minute we save Nightwing and get out of here, I'm going to search for that woman and then put a hole in her goddamn head!"

"I shall stab her heart with my katana!" Damian bellowed at the same time. No one could insult his brother and get away with it.

"I will join you, but I will not kill her. I will merely place her in a body cast," Aqualad said too calmly, but inside he was seething in rage and he itched to place the woman in her place.

"Count me in," Artemis and Kid Flash said, glaring daggers at Ms. Miranda.

"We will discuss killing her later," Batman growled. "But for now, continue through this memory and continue on to Nightwing's subconscious."

"Yeah, it's alright. Pretty much all of Gotham's social elites have said that about me," Past Dick said softly. Past Robin nodded.

"Well, fuck my last sentence, I will put a bullet in  _all_  of their heads!" Red Hood vowed.

"Um, let's just continue..." Past Robin said.

"What?" Pop Haley glared at Ms. Miranda. "Pardon me, I didn't hear what you said."

The woman glared back at him, and then snatched young Dick's wrist in a death grip. Her nails visibly dug deep into the skin, and the young boy grimaced the slightest bit before regaining his devastated aura. "Come, boy." She led young Dick out of the big top.

"She acts as if he is a dog," Wondergirl said in anger. "Ugh, that woman is like scum under a shoe! She's going to be tasting my fist for a while after I find her pathetic butt."

Suddenly the circus and its occupants fizzed out of focus, and only its blurred colors of what was in the memory remained. A few paces away was a silver door, and in front of it was the young version of Dick Grayson, still in his blood-covered leotard.

"Congratulations, you finished the memory," young Dick said emotionlessly, although tears still crept out of the corners of his eyes; they seemed out of his control. "Next you'll experience Nightwing's first memories of the Juvenile Detention Centre."

"You poor thing," Miss Martian whispered, approaching the boy and then kneeling in front of him. "Are you alright?"

Young Dick stared back at her, and then latched onto the Martian in a fierce hug. Smiling softly yet sadly, Miss Martian hugged back and picked up the younger child.

"We'll have to bring him along," Past Robin said, furiously wiping away stray tears that still dripped out of his mask and down his face. "He won't be much trouble, but do you mind carrying him throughout the rest of the memories?"

"No, not at all." Miss Martian carded her slim fingers through the soft hair of young Dick #1  **(A/N: I'm just going to call him that because there is going to be many young Dicks in future memories)**.

"Alright. On we go," Past Dick said, not bothering to dry his tears and instead letting them drip off of his jaw. He opened the door, and the group of vigilantes stepped through into the unknown.


	4. Let's Talk Killing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightwing is put into a coma after a battle, and might die. By delving into his mind, his teammates, his siblings, and Batman have to try to find his subconscious so that they can wake him up. Will they manage to help Nightwing come back to the land of the living? Takes place before Kaldur and Artemis infiltrate the light and before Kid Flash dies; Impulse is already part of the Team.

 

The minute they stepped through the mental door, the odor of week-old rotten cheese and sweat with a sharp tang of blood hit their noses. They immediately recoiled at this terrible stench. Miss Martian almost dropped YDick #1 but just managed to catch him in time, while Past Robin and Past Dick flinched as their tears from the earlier memory began to dry up slowly. They were standing in front of an entrance, a rotting wooden door barely standing blocking the way.

"What  _is_  that smell!" Artemis wrinkled her nose and began waving her hand in the air in a futile attempt to fan away the odor. "This smells almost as bad as the Gotham sewers. And that's saying a  _lot_."

"It's the Juvenile Detention Centre," Past Dick said. "This collection of memories will showcase a variety of events that happened here, until the adoption."

"How bad was it?" Batgirl whispered, lightly touching Past Dick's shoulder. She recalled Dick as a freshman turning his head away and telling her that he didn't want to talk about it when Barbara had asked him about his life before Bruce Wayne had adopted him but after his parents fell; she at least had had the sense to put the smallest bit of pressure on the boy about it possible, instead of continuously prodding him to tell her.

"It was literally like hell," the thirteen-year-old said solemnly. "I will never forget this part of my/his life because it made me understand life without love better."

"It was a harsh lesson," Past Dick added bitterly. "One forever imprinted into my head, also scarring me for life as if it wasn't already enough."

Batman almost felt heartbroken when he heard this, but he was also curious as well for what had happened in the Detention Centre before he, as Bruce Wayne, had come along deciding to take Dick in as a ward. However, he knew that this would not be good, because since when was sending a vulnerable, depressed child - barely even eight years old, at that - to a Juvenile Detention Centre a safe, if it was even logical, decision? Common sense told Batman it wasn't and this idiotic action also shouldn't have been reasonable to others; but then again, not a lot of people had common sense, it seemed. (This world was doomed, he thought.)

"It's starting," Past Robin said, pulling Batman out of his musings.

Ms. Miranda pulled Dick number two harshly out of the run-down, tinted car that they arrived in and literally dragged him up the walkway to a building that almost looked as if it was going to fall apart at any second. At the sight of this, everybody's fingers itched to grab a weapon and just end the lady's life - although it wouldn't work anyways as she was merely a memory - and were forced to take deep breaths to calm down. Superboy scowled and clenched his fists repeatedly, while Batman was maximizing his Batglare effect to  _'you'd better run away now while you can or I'll make you shit your pants; and meanwhile I'll be killing you JUST_   _a little wee bit'_ ; the highest and deadliest level of the glare, which usually, if even used because it was rare - Batman typically only adopted it in his DaddyBats mode or when someone he cared about was fatally injured - promised blood and some major butt-kicking in the end. Past Dick noticed this and inwardly smirked the slightest bit.  _It's nice to see that he cares,_  he thought almost giddily, before paying attention to the memory once again.

Ms. Miranda reached the front, rotting door. She pounded on the door, and it was a miracle that the door didn't just topple over from the strain already. "Open up, I have the circus freak here!"

"Circus freak?" Red Hood all but exploded. "How dare she call him that! I mean, circus brat I could maybe understand because I call Nightwing that, but  _circus freak???_ What the hell!"

"Let's rage quit later," Black Bat hastily said, placing a slim, gloved hand on his bicep to try and calm the fuming man. "But yes, I'm going to go with you to maim that lady once we're out, because it's not her place to insult our brother."

"Hold on a second!" a voice bellowed from inside the door. But it was only a half minute later did the person who spoke opened the door. The person was a pudgy man, bald but with a grey beard. Squinting cold, brown eyes caked with eye gunk held a suspicious and malicious shine within, and the threadbare, white undershirt he was wearing currently seemed unhelpful as it hardly covered even just a third of the man's bulging, protruding stomach. Low-hanging jeans with a belt carelessly slung about the top in the belt loops hung torn and shredded off of the short legs.

Ms. Miranda's face turned to one of disgust and repulsion before instantly transforming back into a fake and sweet, innocent face. "This is the circus brat, Dick Grayson. Personally I think the name fits," she said in a falsetto voice.

"Oh, she did not just say that!" Blue Beetle spat, his armor forming around him without his being aware of it. "That twisted helluva-!"

"There is a child here!" Miss Martian scolded around Young Dick #1, although she was bristling with rage as well. "Watch your language."

"M'gann's acting like a mom, and that's really adorable, but I still wanna punch that Miranda lady in the fricking face," Spoiler said in a low voice.

"Don't we all," Kid Flash growled, breathing hard.

"Another orphan?" the man who'd opened the door said. "The brats are going to overrun this place. I bet their parents die on purpose just because they don't want to take care of them."

"WHAT?!" Batgirl screeched, her hand unconsciously darting to her utility belt for a batarang, "That idiot! He deserves to rot in hell!"

The heroes were seething when they saw that Dick number two had tears coming back to glisten in his already bloodshot eyes. Ms. Miranda noticed and jostled him so fiercely that the young boy's head nearly got whiplash. "Yes, I swear that's what happens when more and more orphans keep appearing."

"What's this place called?! The Gotham Juvenile Detention Centre? If that's it, then I will go there and I will beat these guys to bloody pulps!" Artemis yelled.

"They don't understand the pain of an orphan," Current Robin snarled, images of his late parents flying through his head. "They don't understand at all."

"I will kick them so hard that even Google won't be able to find them," Red Hood agreed. "And also putting a few bullets in them too."

"I probably won't stop you, but we won't be able to save Nightwing if we just keep dawdling around here while we should be getting through memories," Past Dick said.

"Go in, circus freak." Ms. Miranda shoved Dick into the sorry excuse of a building. "Now, say hello to Mr. Small,  _Dick_."

"Mr. Small?" Dick blinked owlishly. "But he's  _big_..."

The superheroes choked with laughter, although they all felt hints of dread spreading outwards in their cores, knowing that Dick was going to get it hard for the comment.

_Crack!_

"Ow!"

The sound of a hand slapping a cheek with all the strength it could muster reverberated around the wooden walls, and the painful squeak of pain that followed the sound was pitiful and frightened.

The heroes were right about Dick getting it hard, but they weren't happy.

"You idiotic brat!" Mr. Small bellowed, lifting Dick up by the neck, ignoring the strangled gasps that the younger uttered when he struggled to breathe through the tight chokehold. "Let's get one thing right, considering it can even get through that dense head of yours into that tiny pea you call a brain.  _You. Will. Respect. Me. And. Accept. Your. Punishments. Without. A. Sound._ " He said the sentence clearly and slowly, as if Dick couldn't speak English. "Got it?"

Dick tried to say yes, but it was impossible to do so with the beefy hand around his throat that threatened to crush his windpipe with one wrong move. Finally he managed a tiny nod that caused pain to flare up his neck, before Mr. Small finally dropped him to the ground.

Batman glared even harder when he saw Dick crumple to the ground like a sad, boneless ragdoll. Once he returned to the world, Bruce Wayne was going to have a talk with a certain Brady Small of the Gotham Juvenile Detention Centre and the latter was going to somehow get fired mysteriously. He'd be replaced by a friendlier person with candy to welcome all children, whether orphans or delinquents, beyond those walls that were also going to be remodeled because it looked flimsy and moldy. And better social workers. Yep, that would do.

Superboy really wanted to punch that man's big fat stomach until all the roundness in that area spilled out of said person's mouth. Revenge was sweet, they said, and Superboy knew without doubt that this revenge would taste like the most sugary, delightful dessert in the world. Besides Zucco, the Flying Graysons' murderer, of course. Then it would taste like the same sugary dessert; just with more sugar.

Everyone else had similar thoughts, and their scowls grew even more larger and darker.

Bruises began slowly appearing on Dick's neck, and the boy was taking in deep breaths while he stared up at Mr. Small in fear and anger. Ms. Miranda was merely acting the bystander next to the door, a ghost of a smirk appearing on her lips as she glared at him. "See, everyone should treat gypsy trash like that. They don't deserve what we do," she purred sickeningly to Mr. Small. The abusive man nodded in agreement and wiped his hands on his barely white undershirt in disgust, as if Dick was the one who was dirty and not him. Dick began tearing up again.

"The gypsy's crying! We'd better lock him up or he'll think we're going to comfort him. Because like hell we're going to." Mr. Small grabbed Dick by the forearm and began pulling him like a luggage into a dank yet somehow still dusty hallway. The vigilantes spent a few more seconds plotting the man and woman's deaths before following the pair and blessing Ms. Miranda with death glares as the lady slipped out of the building. Entering the hallway, they heard the squeak of rats in the walls and cobwebs littered the area.

"This isn't even a Juvenile Detention Centre anymore!" Impulse whined as he looked down the brightly lit hallway. "This is more like some kind of lame but still kinda creepy haunted house!"

"Poor Nightwing," Beast Boy then muttered, and everyone else nodded with the words.

Finally the reached the end of the hallway, and the wood faded into gray tiles and concrete walls. Numbered cells, a few holding delinquents, were set into each side of the passage that Mr. Small and Dick were heading down.

"Honestly, couldn't they have made the front of the building concrete too, instead of wood? The construction workers are so weird." Blue Beetle sighed and then glared at the back of Mr. Small distastefully. "The fricking hombre is still dragging Dick like he is nothing. Scarab, I agree, I want to blast him too. Just not right now."

"I have never agreed with your alien bug so heartily before now," Zatanna said.

"And by extent, me," Black Bat said dangerously.

"Imbeciles, we are lagging behind," Guest Robin said coldly - although most of the maliciousness in his tone was directed towards Mr. Small - and he stomped past the others. Increasing their speed, the others caught up with the two memory people easily and were just in time to see Mr. Small push Dick roughly into Cell 32. The pudgy man then rooted around in the steel drawer next to the cell  **(A/N: I actually have no idea what Detention Centres look like)**  and then pulled out a bright orange jumpsuit a few sizes too big, which he threw into Dick's face.

"Wear that, you brat. Toss your clothes out of the cell and we'll put it into your storage vault for now. You'll get it back someday... if you're lucky." Mr. Small then spat into the cell and turned on his heel, walking past the angry vigilantes.

"So you're the newbie, eh?" The heroes nearly jumped at the new voice, which came from the top bunk of Dick's cell. Of course, like the humans they were, they turned to the location of the voice, where they saw a hunky, blunt-faced brute of a teenage male glaring down at Dick with hardened and dull green eyes. "Well, I'll have to teach you a lesson to show you your place in here." The male jumped down from the top bunk in front of Dick, causing the latter to move backwards in confusion and fear. Slowly the boy approached the younger one, and raised a hand that was curled into a fist.

"No!" Batman bellowed when he realized what was going to happen.

 _Snap!_  The older boy's hand came down on Dick's right cheek hard, which provoked a strangled cry from the small eight-year-old as he fell backwards onto the ground. A hand flew up to his reddened, stinging cheek as the boy blinked back tears of pain that were threatening to spill out.

"WHAT!" The vigilantes were all but furious, hands forming tight fists, and a few dug their nails so deep into their palms as they were so angry that they drew blood.

"Nightwing has the worst life ever of all of us, maybe," Bumblebee muttered, glowering darkly at the older male who was still sneering and glaring at the cowering boy on the ground.

"How does that feel, boy?" The brute pulled back for another hit, landing one on Dick's gut and then another one on the chest. "That's how you should be treated. Because circus freaks don't deserve to live happy lives. They deserve to  _rot in hell_."

Dick mumbled something into the crook of his arm from where he was tucked into a ball on the ground.

"What did you say, gypsy?"  _Smack. Thud._

" _You_  deserve to rot in hell," Dick snarled, a sudden fire burning in his eyes as he glared up at the older boy from his prone position.

"You brat!" More hitting and kicking followed the angry exclamation.

"What the hell is that boy's name?!" Guest Robin yelled, his hand unconsciously migrating towards his katana. "I will unleash all my fury onto him once I locate him!"

"His name was Gabriel Leigh. I was the outlet to the stress and anger he felt the minute he was put into the Detention Centre," Past Dick answered as his eyes darkened at the sight of the younger him getting 'taught' a lesson. YDick #1 was staring with a sort of horrified fascination, wide and tearful blue eyes taking in the view before he whined softly and buried his tear-streaked face in Miss Martian's neck.

"Gabriel Leigh was adopted by one Mr. and Mrs. Payton, but later ran away and was found nearly dead in a secluded alleyway," Current Robin recited, remembering a newspaper article about the event. "He survived, but is most likely already in hell now because from the waist down he's paralyzed for life."

"Oh my gosh," Miss Martian gasped. "Well, I suppose that - "

Suddenly a wail of pain cut the martian off. The superheroes whipped towards the sound of a certain Dick in pain and were horrified to see blood beginning to seep out of various injuries all over the tiny body like small waterfalls.

"I heard he works at a local Starbucks in Gotham, too. I'm going to get him fired," Spoiler said coldly. No one was going to hurt her oldest brother and get away with it scotch-free.

"Don't forget to fire Ms. Miranda and Mr. Small too," Red Hood said. "Or my finger will accidently slip on my gun while it's oh-so-conveniently aimed at them and it'll be a nasty sight."

"Bats don't kill," Black Bat said, although she didn't really sound like she sincerely wanted to actually follow Batman's number one rule. She, along with everybody else, also really wanted to strangle the three terrible people and give them each a taste of their own medicine. "Us Bats only maim others, or at least seriously injure."

"..."

"Yes, do that," Aqualad said, wincing from the sight of Gabriel beating the crap out of Dick. "Maim or seriously injure them. I doubt that I will feel sympathy for them, other than the fact that they will have many furious Bats demanding vengeance for their brother soon."

"Put them in body casts!" Artemis demanded while a terrifying fire burned brightly and furiously in her blazing gray eyes.

"Pack pack, kill kill," Beast Boy piped up. Everyone stared at him.

"Did you seriously just quote  _Warrior Cats: A Dangerous Path_  by Erin Hunter?" Batgirl asked in disbelief. She recognized the quote from one of the books in the popular  _Warrior_   _Cats_  series from her time as a volunteer in the library.  **(A/N: I _LOVE_  Warrior Cats! :3)**

"... Maybe. But it fits, right? We're a sort of pack, and we want to kill someone a tad little bit. Nightwing's our leader, StarClan bless him - hehe - and we wanna save him from the dogs; also known as the bad people."

"You're nerding out on us, Gar," Impulse pat the changeling's back. "But yeah, agreed!"

"I feel mildly uncomfortable that you guys are discussing killing people," Kid Flash informed everyone around him.

"This is our older brother we're talking about, and  _your_  younger brother who's being... y'know," Spoiler reminded him, turning away from the cruel beating that Dick was still receiving. She hated feeling so powerless. All she really wanted to do was to just take out a nice, sharp batarang and then sink it into the dude Gabriel while spitting curses at him; and after that was over, give some much-needed medical care to young little Dick. That was not being overprotective. That was being a responsible younger sister who really loved an older man as a brother.

"... Touché."

They were forced to watch little Dick number two get beaten up some more.

"Ugh!" Superboy finally broke first, his gloved hands curling into tight fists that turned the flesh white. "How much longer until this ends? I'm  _sick_  of seeing Dick bullied like that!" He was glaring at Gabriel so angrily and intensely that one would think he was Superman and was going to activate his laser vision at any second. His glare was seriously beginning to rival that of a Bat-glare. That was obviously no easy feat, and instantly Superboy had the aura of a serial killer bent on destruction about him.

Miss Martian winced from all the vigilantes' overpowering and chaotic emotions of fleeting anger, panic, pity, and sadness, and she adjusted the now-sleeping YDick #1 onto a more comfortable position on her hip. "I agree. This is beginning to make me mentally exhausted, yet poor Dick is still being... abused."

Past Robin frowned. "I don't know. It didn't seem to take this long for me, I think I fell unconscious halfway through the so not asterous 'lesson'."

"Dick." Batman placed heavy hands onto both Past Robin and Past Dick's shoulders. "I am extremely sorry for not adopting you sooner. I had no idea that you were being abused like this."

Past Dick managed a weak smile. "It's okay, you were too busy. I don't blame you."

"But  _I_  blame myself," Batman mumbled quietly, more to himself than to his ward (wards?). The two past versions of Dick heard, however, and they merely hugged the Caped Crusader.

"Don't worry, that's just DaddyBats talking. You'll be back to feeling no emotions soon enough," Past Robin joked in a weak attempt to uppen the negative vibes crowding in the room. He paused. "Wait. You guys are feeling dismal. If aster is the opposite of disaster, and may is the opposite of dismay... Then  _mal!_  Mal is the opposite of dismal! C'mon guys, feel the mal!" He began humming  _Can you feel the love tonight_  and it brought sentimental smiles to the original Team's faces while the newer members looked on, clearly bewildered and yet still amused. It even elicited a tiny smile from Batman, and small chortles of laughter from the Batfamily members.

Finally the scene of Gabriel and Dick swirled out of focus, cueing the time skip. When the world around the heroes once again ceased the random blur of colors and cut-off speech of passing time, they found themselves still in the cell, now with a slightly taller and defeated-looking Dick. Gabriel was finally gone, sure, but Dick, now probably two weeks after the incident and his birthday, still sported fresh bruises and some injuries that leaked pus. There were probably even more wounds below the dirty and loose orange jumpsuit that he was wearing, and the boy looked malnourished and the suit looked two sizes too big. A black eye contrasted sharply with his pale skin beneath low-hanging bangs, although the blue-irised eye in its center was dull and seemingly blank; much like the other eye. Looking closer, the heroes saw only the tiniest hint of life barely glowing in the once-bright blue eyes. Batman only felt more guiltier at this observation and his gear began to feel heavy. Dick was the only occupant of Cell 32, and the lonely boy sat on the lowest mattress of the bunk bed.

Suddenly intruder alarms in the building began blaring. Dick, although he seemed almost brainwashed, suddenly shot up off the bed, a bit more life seeping into the eyes that were gradually becoming more and more bright blue by the second because of curiosity and awareness. The heroes wondered what in the world was going on, and were about to follow the memory's Dick towards the cell door when suddenly a small explosion shook the hallway. The vigilantes could hardly keep their balance, and Dick had to pause in his journey towards the door to regain his balance - which came easily to him as he was an acrobat - until the tremors stopped.

But as soon as the dust settled and bits of concrete finished rolling off of the annihilated wall of the Detention Centre, a frightening, costumed...  _thing_ appeared at the bars of Dick's cell. It was wearing black armor that seemed to be made of a strong metal, an owl mask with goggles, a long, black feathered cloak, and protected gloves with sharpened fingertips like claws. A belt slung on a shoulder across the chest was filled with elaborately designed knives, and another belt with yet more knives on the hips completed the look. The deadly gloves, armed with claws, curled around some cell bars and the goggles of the owl mask stared blankly yet strangely intensely at the young boy inside the cell.

"Who... er,  _what_  are you?" Dick yelped, stumbling backwards.

"Talon," Batman snarled. The Batfamily instinctively moved directly next to Past Dick, Past Robin, and YDick #1 to protect them from the assassin that they knew was bad news.

"Who's that?" L'gann wondered aloud.

"Tt. He is the main, extremely deadly assassin of the Court of Owls that Grayson is destined to become. He is also known as William Cobb, Grayson's great grandfather," Guest Robin supplied.

"Nightwing is destined to be an assassin?" Blue Beetle said, surprised.

"I thought the Court of Owls was just a myth or something that scare children into behaving," Wondergirl said. "So they're really a secret organization?"

"An organization that wants to rule the entire city of Gotham and also sends out assassins - also known as Talons - to kill people who pose as threats to the Court and more," Past Dick confirmed.

Suddenly the Talon began speaking in an empty, chilling voice.

_"Beware the Court of Owls,_

_That watches all the time._

_Ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch,_

_Behind granite and lime._

_They watch you at your hearth,_

_They watch you in your bed._

_Speak not a whispered word of them,_

_Or they'll send the Talon for your head."_

No one spoke. "This seems kinda cliché to me," Bumblebee hissed.

Everybody nodded in agreement and waited to see what Dick was going to do next.

Said boy merely blinked at the imposing figure before him.

"... Okay?"

The vigilantes had to resist the urge to facepalm at the younger Dick's  _very_ clever response.

Yet the Talon said nothing.

Instead it slowly began bending the cell's bars with inhuman strength.

Slowly,

Slowly,

Slowly,

And...

The bars snapped under the strain of an assassin's cruel claws.

"Rahat!" Dick backed away from the creature warily, panicked blue eyes darting around the cell to see if anything could be used as a weapon to protect him.  **(means "sh*t")**

There wasn't.

"Rahat!" young little Dick repeated as the Talon stepped through the busted cell bars and...

was pulled backwards, back out of the cell.

"Oh, thank God!" Miss Martian cried, clutching YDick #1 to her chest tightly as if he were a plushie and she was watching a horror film rather then just a memory. "It's Batman!"

And Batman it was, albeit younger. A terror of a man, residing in black Kevlar as he landed lethal blows on the trained assassin despite his "no-killing" morals. And what a view it was to see the feared vigilante fight, a whirlwind of black and gray silently beating down the opponent easily.

Meanwhile the Batman who was watching the memory felt himself smirk. He would later deny the accusation of him thinking to himself that it was so cool watching himself fight in third person, although he probably saw tons of himself fighting on Gotham's cameras. He was Batman, and Batman didn't think of things like that. Batman thought of contingency plans for every type of emergencies possible, Batman thought of new techniques in fighting, Batman thought of everything purely Gotham, through and through. Not unicorns and rainbows and all that happy stuff.

(Now,  _Bruce Wayne_  would probably think that, but that's because he had the 'Brucie' act to put up, and walking around with braindead bimbos literally hanging onto his arms required that kind of thinking; besides money.)

"Yay, Batman!" YDick #1 suddenly cheered in a small voice, and everybody turned to stare at the tiny boy, eventually giving  _awws_  at the adorableness of the boy.

(Now Batman felt much happier.)

"Oh my gosh," Dick said in the memory to himself - although the heroes heard - with a voice heaping with sheer astonishment and confusion. "This is the weirdest day of my life."

" _That's_  what you say after meeting face-to-face with an assassin and then seeing  _Batman_  fight aforementioned assassin?" Kid Flash guffawed into Past Dick's face. "Honestly, you confuse me sometimes."

"Isn't that my job, besides putting criminals in jail and being a smooth playboy's ward?" Past Dick joked innocently, smugly smirking as he watched his memory of Batman fighting - and close to defeating - the Talon. "That's my favorite part. Besides spending time with my Dad," he added, capturing Batman's lower torso in a suffocating embrace that would have choked the World's Greatest Detective had the smaller vigilante been as tall as he was as Nightwing.  **(Fluff!)**

This drew more  _awws_  from the girls on the Team, and a cackle from Past Robin.

Contented, the superheroes watched the fight next to Dick and were satisfied to see that Batman was winning the battle. Finally the black costumed hero seemed to have had enough, and at a speed that would have made a speedster jealous - Kid Flash did actually turn red and sputter in indignation - snatched the Talon by the unprotected lower arm and using extraordinary strength (to a human, at least), and created enough momentum by a 360 degree turn to launch the assassin into a nearby wall before taking out a small contraption that looked like a gun.

"Is that a freeze ray that you stole from Mr. Freeze?" Red Hood realized belatedly after his own question that yes, in fact it was, and everyone was awed to see that the second the memory's Batman shot the  _thing_  in his hand at the Talon, a sliver of ice flew out and then covered the assassin's torso. Finally giving out noises, the creature began uttering hisses of pain and discomfort while struggling vainly to escape the frozen water that was firmly trapping his torso.

"Talons are extremely vulnerable to the cold. It slows them down and it makes them uncomfortable. If they're exposed to coldness for too long they will die," Batman explained to the other heroes, gesturing at the aggressive Talon still writhing on the ground in its icy restraints. He and Damian remembered when they froze all the Talons that had attacked them in Wayne Manor a few years back when Damian had just been given to him by Talia al Ghul.  **(AKA the movie Batman vs. Robin; I 100% recommend watching it!)**

Batman in the memory grabbed the Talon by the collar of its uniform and turned to leave; but not before stopping inside the cell first to check Dick over for injuries.

"Are you alright?" he asked the eight-year-old, surprisingly gently for such a rough hero.

Dick beamed at him, his blue eyes now lively and shining with some excitement as the adrenaline from watching an awesome fight coursed through his veins. "Yeah! Thanks Batman, you're really cool, I think you're the best hero  _ever_  besides Superman..." The young boy began blabbing even more of things that were in no way were relevant to the first topic at all, which caused a small smile to grace Batman's features.

"Aww!" Zatanna cooed over the sight of a nonsensically talking Dick and an amused Batman. "This is  _so_  adorable!"

Finally Dick ran out of words to say. He suddenly yawned, tired, and Batman cleared the lower bunk of debris before lowering the boy on it. Dick was instantly out like a light.

"That was fast," Beast Boy remarked, surprised. "He didn't seem all that tired before."

"My adrenaline wore off and it left me exhausted," Past Robin explained.

The memory's Batman smirked slightly and exited Cell 32, and dragging the now-unconscious Talon out of the Detention Centre, muttered to himself softly.

The heroes heard it, though.

_"Dickie, I'm coming back for you."_

Yep. No doubt that Batman had seen the abundant injuries on poor Dick and was going to adopt him. Dick's new life was going to begin. And the vigilantes couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next.

Suddenly another time skip occurred. The vigilantes' surroundings blurring and then sharpening back into focus. They were surprised to find themselves back in the wooden, small office of Mr. Small again, but were happy to see a certain Bruce Wayne sitting next to Dick. It seemed to only be the next morning, judging from the view of the bright, pink-tinged sky through the small window the office had. Mr. Small himself was also there, to the heroes' disgust.

"Hello, Mr. Wayne!" Mr. Small said grandly, trying to suck in his bulbous stomach to seem more neat and prim but failing. "What are you here for, and why do you have the gyp - Richard Grayson?"

Bruce caught the slip and frowned before plastering a very fake smile onto his face that screamed 'I'm boss'. "I would like to adopt Richard, Mr. Small."

Mr. Small, who had just dropped the futile attempt of sucking in the stomach, was caught off guard and gave a rather big gasp that actually succeeded in making his stomach smaller; instead his chest inflated and then he uttered a choking noise that sounded more like a strangled cat than an actual person too surprised to speak. Bruce patiently waited until the man gained enough breath again to speak.

"A-a-adopt, sir?" Mr. Small managed, hand straying to a half-full beer bottle nearby, which earned a disapproving glare from Bruce. The man must have either ignored the look or missed it, but he swigged most of the beer left in the bottle anyway before setting it down once more. "Mr. Wayne, sir, do you really believe that you should adopt this... this  _boy?_ " Mr. Small struggled to say the last word, as if he was barely keeping himself from insulting Dick, as if the boy wasn't human.

"He has a name, idiot," Artemis grumbled as she fingered her green compact bow. She itched to just shoot an arrow up the rude man's ass, if there wasn't one already. If there was something already up the guy's ass, then Artemis wouldn't have been surprised anyway. But she still really wanted to shoot the darn man, preferably with an explosive arrow...

"Yes, I would like to adopt Richard," Bruce repeated himself. Outwards he looked calm and patient, but inside the superheroes could see that he was a tornado of rage, annoyance, frustration, and impatience. They could just envision him internally tapping a foot while staring at an imaginary watch on his wrist in their mind's eye. Mr. Small was a very slow man, and a rather frustrating one at that.

"Damn you, just let him adopt Dick already!" Wondergirl muttered angrily, tapping her foot for real. "It's not that hard, just say yes and give him the necessary papers. And Dick is a  _person_ , for Pete's sake. That will be the first lesson I'm teaching you! And the fact that you don't hit children who are traumatized! Idiotic man, think he's boss of everything..."

Everyone agreed and Past Robin, Past Dick, and YDick #1 couldn't help but feel lucky to have such loyal and close teammates that were willing to stand up for them. Everyone needed those kinds of friends, and to  _be_  those very friends. It helped with life, after all.

"Why?" Mr. Small asked.

Everyone facepalmed, and made Miss Martian flinch from all the pain they caused themselves when they saw/heard Mr. Small's slowness.

"Argh..." Superboy made a frustrated noise that sounded something along that line, and Spoiler began banging her head against Red Hood's forearm.

"There has to be something wrong with that dude, I swear!" Kid Flash groaned, staring up at the sky - or, at least, where it should have been had Wally not been in Nightwing's head - and gave the 'sky' a look that said,  _'God, help me, please'._

"Tt. He is an imbecile," Guest Robin sniffed angrily, clenching and unclenching his fists.

Bruce gave Mr. Small a 'WTF' look. "Why? Because I can relate to him. I can help him through these years, where the pain of losing everything he had is still fresh and overwhelming. And really, must I really explain everything to you? I have a meeting at my company in fifteen minutes, and I would like to have the process done before then."

Mr. Small nodded overenthusiastically, looking properly ashamed that he'd been prodding into the business of Gotham's very own Dark Prince. "Of course, of course!" He pushed his ratty, wheelie office chair backwards and hastily fumbled through several messy drawers before producing a small stack of dog-eared papers. "The papers are a bit... disordered, sir. It may take quite a bit of time to get them back in order and filled in completely, but - "

"Thank you, Mr. Small," Bruce interrupted, sounding relieved that he finally got the papers he needed. "I will complete these forms back at the Manor. There is nothing else you are required to do."

"Right right!" Mr. Small squeaked, handing Bruce the papers with shaking hands. "Goodbye, Mr. Wayne. Um... bye - " here the man hesitated - " _Dick_." The way he said it sounded far more offensive than it was friendly, and Bruce's face transformed into a scowl for a brief moment before maintaining his playboy millionaire impression again. He turned to Dick, who was still sitting on a chair, and knelt.

"Richard, would you like to live with me?" Bruce asked, bluntly and straight to the point.

"Shouldn't he have asked Dick that before he asked for the papers?" Blue Beetle asked.

"He already knew I'd prefer living with him over continuing my life as a juvenile delinquent. Anyone would," Past Dick replied. He hugged Batman again. "Thank you, Bruce!"

Batman hugged back, mouth twitching upward into an almost-smile. "No problem, chum. I would do it again for you anyday. And for all of you." He pulled the rest of the Batfamily into the hug - which was really surprising considering he was the goddamn  _Batman_  that was apparently emotionless - and the other heroes couldn't help but smile at the fluff. Then, after the hug-fest was over, they all turned back to the memory.

Dick jumped and looked at Bruce with wonder. "You're Bruce Wayne..."

Bruce chuckled. "I am."

"You paid for Mamă and Tata's funeral. Thank you," Dick said happily and sadly at the same time, which should have been impossible but was somehow made possible by the eight-year-old.

"It was nothing. I had to watch my parents die too, around your age." The unspoken  _'I don't want you to turn into me, like Batman'_. "Your parents are proud of you, Dick. I hope you know that."

Dick had tears spring to his eyes, and although a few escaped, said, "I know. And I hope that  _you_  know that your parents are proud of you too." He gave a small, sad smile.

Bruce was taken aback by the younger boy's words. Were they really? Were they proud that he was a playboy Bruce Wayne by day, dark vigilante Batman at night? Were they proud that he was going to adopt a young boy who was probably traumatized, even though he had no idea how to father children?

The superheroes could literally see the thoughts roaming through Bruce's mind.

"All that thinking from one small thing that Golden Boy said?" Red Hood teased Batman, although under his words his tone said,  _'Of course they're fucking proud of you, Bruce. Surely you know that already!'_

Batman couldn't help but actually smile a little bit at that. He was so proud of his sons and daughters. And he'd come to the terms about a year after adopting Dick that yeah, his parents  _were_  in fact proud of him; with some convincing and chocolate chip cookies on Alfred's part. That was one of the best nights of his life.

(Until he realized that Alfred had drugged his cookies with a mild sedative because he had skipped sleeping for almost a month working on a difficult case. He'd gotten slightly upset with his butler but still understood that Alfred only wanted him to be and  _stay_  healthy. Plus, he'd gotten yet more cookies - undrugged! - the next day from Alfred as an apology.)

The memory's Bruce smiled at Dick, quickly shutting himself out of his thoughts. "Thank you. Now, about living with me?" He ignored Mr. Small who was placing the young acrobat's suitcase carrying his belongings next to them.

The orphan smiled, happy for the first time since his parents' deaths. "Yes, please!"

Bruce laughed and carded his fingers of the hand not holding the adoption papers through Dick's soft black hair. He stood up, and helped the small boy off the tall wooden chair with a hand. "Come on, chum. The car's outside." He suddenly stopped.  _Chum?_  Where had that come from? It was the nickname his father had callen him when he was still alive. But it had sounded so natural and so comfortable tumbling from his mouth to address the young boy that. Maybe he could call him that as he was going to be Dick's foster dad now...?

"Mr. Wayne?" A small hand tugged at the jacket part of his expensive suit, and Bruce looked down to see the bright, icy azure blue eyes of Dick staring up at him. "Are we leaving?"

Bruce smiled down. "Yes, Richard, we are. And call me Bruce."

"Only if you call me Dick," the younger said with a slight tilt to his mouth which suggested a smirk. His eyes twinkled mischievously and yet still with the sadness of lost items of importance.

Bruce winked, and replied, "Alright, deal. Now let's get out of here, it's beginning to feel stuffy." The billionaire took Dick's luggage in one hand and the paper forms in the other, while the acrobat followed behind with a small fist clenching around the hem of his jacket.

The vigilantes followed the two out of the Juvenile Detention Centre. It was heartwarming to see Dick look around at his surroundings with so much awe and excitement after not being outside for weeks. He was amazed over the simplest things, from flowers to butterflies and even just grass.

Soon the two reached a parking area, where a sleek, black limousine was parked, engine purring smoothly and quietly. In front of an elderly man in a tuxedo with a balding head and a small, sharp mustache. Although he was obviously of old age, he stood up straight and he looked forward observantly with sharp grey eyes. Those eyes warmed greatly at the view of Bruce and his soon-to-be ward/son.

"Hello, Master Bruce. This must be Master Richard. Hello, Master Richard. It is a pleasure to meet you," the old man said as the two got closer. He gave a nod of greeting to Bruce seeing as his hands were full and offered a hand to Dick. Remembering his manners, the orphan shook the man's hand confidently. "Alfred Pennyworth, at your service." The man, Alfred, gave Dick a small bow and stepped up to Bruce to place the acrobat's items in the trunk of the beautiful vehicle.

"You can just call me Dick, Mr. Pennyworth," Dick said respectively as he watched Alfred put his small suitcase in the car.

"Then you must call me Alfred," the butler replied. "Master Dick," he added after closing the trunk and then opening the side door of the car to let Bruce and Dick in to sit.

The young boy shook his head. "Just Dick," he insisted, settling down in the large car seat with Bruce in the one on his left.

"Of course, Master Just Dick."

Dick sputtered. Bruce laughed.

(So did the vigilantes.)

"Don't try," Bruce told the eight-year-old playfully in a whisper. "I've tried it many times before and it hasn't worked. It's almost as if it's eternally drilled into his mind to call everyone 'Masters' and 'Mistresses'. And I don't think it's an elderly people thing, if you catch my drift."

"This elderly man can hear just fine as well, Master Bruce," Alfred called out as he got into the driver's seat.

"He's also a ninja with powers," Bruce stage-whispered to Dick while sorting out the forms on his lap. The orphan let out a small peal of laughter, although it sounded more like a cackle.

"Quite right."

"What a unique laugh you have, Dick," Bruce said in an amused tone as he observed the boy sitting next to him. Said male grinned up at him.

"My Mamă and Tata say it's 'one of a kind'," Dick said brightly, until he sobered at the mention of his deceased parents. "I miss them." The tears began leaking out of their own accord, although he did nothing to stop them.

Bruce felt pity and sadness clench his heart as he noticed his young ward/son beginning to cry. He pulled the boy in for a one-armed hug and said, "I understand. I still miss my parents, and they were murdered a little bit over thirty years ago."

But what Dick said next surprised Bruce.

"Does the pain ever go away?"

The heroes that were listening in on the conversation felt themselves wilt. But they were still curious to see what Bruce would say.

Bruce was silent for a few seconds. He finally let out a small sigh. "No," he admitted.

Dick finally broke apart and gut-wrenching sobs tore from his throat and into the air of the rather spacious limousine. Bruce, not knowing what else to do, pulled the acrobat in for a deeper hug.

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely and without any form of doubt in his words. "I'm sorry."

And with that, the scene was blurred out until only faint traces of color could be deduced from the out-of-focus area. Another silver door stood a couple of yards away, but the second Dick wasn't there.

"Where is the second Dick?" Aqualad questioned, just as confused as his fellow vigilantes.

"He won't be coming with us," Past Robin answered. "Now, after this door are some whelming memories of Wayne Manor and how I first began settling into my new home. Are you guys ready?"

"Yes," everybody said together, and Past Dick opened the second door. Faint speech and some fleeing colors could be seen emitted from the passageway. With one last breath, the Team and Batfam stepped through the doorframe and into the next memory.


	5. The Author wants to Sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightwing is put into a coma after a battle, and might die. By delving into his mind, his teammates, his siblings, and Batman have to try to find his subconscious so that they can wake him up. Will they manage to help Nightwing come back to the land of the living? Takes place before Kaldur and Artemis infiltrate the light and before Kid Flash dies; Impulse is already part of the Team.

****_"Dick, this is your new home." Bruce showed young little Dick - who was still crying - the expansive, grand building that was Wayne Manor from inside the limousine's tinted windows as the vehicle slowly made its way up the winding path connecting the outer gate to the building._

"It looks even bigger in person," Impulse said in an awestruck manner. "I have never truly appreciated architecture until now."

"It was a big change, going from living in a tiny trailer to an even smaller cell and then suddenly a giant house that belonged to a person of high society," Past Dick mused as he now carried YDick #1 and ran fingers through the sleeping boy's hair. He ignored how the adorable boy was managing to drool onto the pricey 'monkey suit'.

_Young Dick managed to forget his parents' deaths for a minute and the waterworks paused. "Whoa! That is your house?" he said in wonder, wide blue eyes peering at the Manor as if he couldn't believe that he was going to live there with Bruce._

_"Yes, chum." Bruce chuckled._ Chum. _The name had come easier now, as it seemed to suit Dick. It seemed proper that Bruce called his 'son' that, as his own father had given him that very same nickname. It sounded right._

_"Your house is huge!" Dick exclaimed as his nose pressed against the cold windowpane, not exactly realizing that he was stating a rather obvious fact._

"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" Red Hood sarcastically clapped for Past Dick, who blushed but Past Robin glared at his younger/older brother  **(A/N: gosh this is confusing)**.

"You're welcome, Sergeant Sarcasm," Past Robin quipped, two fingers in a mock salute.

"Boys," Spoiler muttered exasperatedly to Batgirl, and both girls smirked when the boys sent Batglares to them.

_"Yes, it is huge," Bruce agreed, and after Alfred turned left, making the Manor appear on Bruce's side of the car, let Dick unclasp his seatbelt to crawl onto his lap to get a better view of the old yet remarkable house._

_He caught Alfred's warning look in the windshield mirror, which conveyed a message:_ //You must put young Master Dick back into his own seat, or he will be injured should we crash.\\\

 _Bruce was pretty sure Alfred was still insisting on calling Dick 'Master Just Dick' after the earlier comment in the parking lot of the Detention Centre_ _in the eye-message_ _ **(A/N: HAHA anyone get it???)**_ _, but ignored it for now. After checking that Dick wasn't speaking to him at the moment, replied via eyelook._ //Alfred, you're driving. I hardly think that we will crash with you at the wheel. We're also on one of the Manor's private roads. No obstacles to crash into.\\\

_Alfred responded with the only glare known to Man that was worse that the Batglare: the ALFREDglare. At the moment it was turned on at almost full force, and Bruce internally wilted before plucking Dick off his lap and gently setting him down on the young boy's own seat. He clipped the seatbelt in place as well._

"Wow. Who is this man again? I think I have a newfound respect for butlers," Bumblebee said, impressed. "He just ordered the goddamn  _Batman_  to do something."

"Alfred," Current Robin said, smirking at the Batman next to him while the man glared at him. "He's the only person who can order Batman around."

**A/N: Okay, I admit that I've never really liked Tim Drake as Robin. But then I played _Young Justice: Shadow Mission_  on the Cartoon Network website, and since Timmy here was the main character, I became rather attached to him because he got out of a SHADOW POCKET DIMENSION by himself!!! **Fangirls over YJ game** Now I  _really_  like him, and also I respect him. ;D (I also really recommend that game if you haven't played it already. Klarion Mode is  _awesome;_  although you have to kill Robin in that level. *grins sadistically* XD) Also I'm writing this chapter while listening to the music of the game...**

"I have to meet this Alfred guy," Wondergirl decided.

"His cookies are really good, too," Zatanna added, having been exposed to the butler's heavenly cookies. "As in, he makes every other cookie taste like nothing."

"Cookies," Impulse said dreamily. "I like cookies." As if on cue, his stomach rumbled.

"Me too!" Beast Boy agreed.

"Oh my gosh," Spoiler suddenly chimed in, staring at her hand. A brown paper bag that hadn't been there earlier was now being clenched in her fist. "This just appeared all of a sudden. I wonder what this is?" The eggplant-purple vigilante curiously opened the bag and was astounded to see that there were  _cookies_  in the bag. And not just any cookies; they smelled like  _Alfred's_  legendary cookies (not that the newer members would know that). Spoiler pulled one studded with chocolate chips out and sniffed it in pleasant surprise.

"They're Alfred's cookies! The best ones: chocolate chip!" Current Robin exclaimed, and he happily snatched the only food item he valued over coffee from his sister's hands.

"I WANT ONE!!" Wally  **(A/N: for the sake of my sanity and patience I will now regard every character by their actual names except for the personas of Nightwing - and Batman)**  leapt to the front of the group and dunked his hand into the bag. He pulled out another chocolate chip cookie and shoved it into his mouth as Bart snatched one as well. Soon every hero was taking and eating cookies; even Batman, although he hid his happiness of eating the delicious treats.

"Hey, isn't EVERYTHING here - including these cookies - cooked up by Nightwing's mind?" Jason suddenly asked. "No pun intended, of course."

"It is," Past Dick responded with a cackle. "So technically this could be classified as 'eating' his mind."

"Eww." Bart stopped shoving cookies down his throat and wrinkled his nose. "That's gross."

"Isn't it kind of weird that we're just standing here eating cookies while Nightwing is dying?" Barbara casually yet subtly reminded the others of their leader's condition.

"Tt. We will simply watch as we eat these figments of Grayson's mind," Damian said.

"You make it sound like we're mind zombies or something," Gar grumbled before Past Robin continued the memory.

_Dick blinked as the car finally pulled up to the Manor. The Manor was even bigger than it had seemed from twenty-five yards away. Now it towered over him like the giant Goliath to David._

_"This is where you live?" he asked Bruce, although he already knew the answer. He'd only asked the question because he didn't know what else to say to the playboy multi-billionaire._

_"It is."_

_Dick scurried out of the car when Alfred the butler held the door open for him, and he dimly noticed Bruce retrieving his luggage from the trunk of the limousine before running excitedly to the front door. The front door, like the rest of the house, was intricately designed and was a delight to see. The aesthetically beautiful pane of wood was also extremely sturdy and would surely hold against outsiders attempting to break in - if they ever got past the gate, at least._

"I don't know if I should be worried that you were so interested in the front door," Batman said with a slightly amused tone. Past Dick blushed.

"It was an interesting door," he defended himself. "It looked really cool to me at the time..."

"A door that was captivating to Dick must have been really interesting to gain that guy's attention," Barbara defended. "Plus, he  _did_  come from a place without... interesting doors."

Damian clapped slowly. "You have supercalifragilisticexpialidocious reasoning skills, Gordon," he informed her superiorly and sarcastically.

**A/N: Is it fine that I now think Damian is kind of a whiny little bitch after reading _Injustice: Gods Among Us_?  Plus, he killed Nightwing and turned against Batman. ARGHH!! But then Dick became Deadman and I was happy again. But still. Damian, Superman, Wonder Woman, Hal Jordan, and Sinestro are stupid bastards. Sorry for cursing in this short rant. I ranted about the comic issues' events even longer to my friends via Google Hangouts, and cursed more, too. The poor fellows didn't have a single clue what I was talking about, but they  _did_  know I was an avid DC fan. Okay, back to the story. No more author notes in the middle of the chapter. :D**

"Shut up, brat," Barbara muttered, although with thinly-veiled fondness in her tone. "And did you actually watch the movie Mary Poppins?!"

"Grayson dragooned me into watching it with him on Bonding Night against my will," Damian sniffed as a suspicious red tint spread across his cheeks. "It was exceedingly tedious."

"Uh, huh. Right."

_Bruce walked up behind Dick. Alfred could be seen in the background removing Dick's luggage from the limo's trunk._

"This is so amusing because it's like we're in Google Earth right now," Bart realized.

The other heroes realized that this was actually kind of true.

"Whoa, I just thought of something. What if heroes are actually considered 'villains' among villains, who consider themselves to be 'heroes'? And vice versa for us?" Mal wondered.

"If Cinderella's shoe fit perfectly, why did it fall off? If it was already built, why is it called a building? How come our noses run but our feet smell? If you work as security at a Samsung store, does that make you a guardian of the galaxy? Isn't the word 'nun' just the letter 'n' doing a cartwheel?" Gar blurted out in a sudden torrent of words. **(A/N: LOL I've actually thought about these before...)**

"Well fuck," Jason said. "You guys are thinking very deeply right now."

_"Do you like the Manor, Dick?" Bruce questioned the young boy next to him as he entered the house. Alfred was right on their heels._

_Dick glanced down at the ground as he shuffled inside the roomy house, suddenly shy. "Yes, sir. It is very large." He carefully avoided getting dust on the hallway carpet and allowed Alfred to pass him, as the elderly man set down the luggage._

_"You don't need to address me as 'sir'," Bruce tried._

_"Um, okay, si- um, Mr. Wayne."_

_"Di-"_

_"Master Bruce, perhaps you would like me to lead young Master Dick to his room?" Alfred appeared next to the two, a washrag draped neatly over his arm as he passed on Dick's luggage to Bruce._

"How did he get a washrag onto his arm in under a second??" Karen demanded.

Past Dick grinned. "He's the true 'master' of the house. And he's the only one who can boss Batman around."

"He's also the one who baked the  _delicious_  cookies we're eating," Past Robin added. He quickly snatched the last cookie, earning a few jokingly dirty looks from the others who also wanted it. He happily ignored them as he focused on savoring the delicious and crumbly treat he had.

"Grayson, you  _are_  aware that you can also order Father around," Damian said with a raised eyebrow, "correct?"

"Only other person." Black Bat nodded.

"His puppy dog eyes are impossible to say no to," Batman mumbled.

The Batsiblings all smirked, having perfected the infamous 'puppy dog eyes' sometime in their lives. They were a powerful weapon when wanting someone else to do something for you. Aka Bruce.

_"Of course, Alfred." Bruce grunted as he lifted Dick's luggage. "Follow me."_

_He strode briskly to the beautiful staircase, the luggage not slowing him down, with the younger boy beside him taking three steps for every one that he took. Bruce cast a glance at Dick to make sure he was keeping up before climbing up the steps. Dick was, and his beautiful blue eyes took everything in, from priceless vases to glittering artifacts hung up on the pristine walls. He gaped at every single thing he saw, not used to seeing such valuable items. Finally they reached the top of the staircase and walked right down the hall. Doors stood proudly on both sides of the corridor, and every now and then there was a large, spotless window that overlooked the expansive Wayne estate.The manor was overall very luxurious, and had a very comfortable aura to it._

_Dick was already enjoying it, but the emptiness of life in the house other than the three individuals made him feel slightly unwelcome. It contrasted very greatly to the cozy and crowded trailer that belonged to the Graysons before their untimely death. The very thought of his passed parents brought fresh tears to Dick's eyes, the tear tracks on his cheeks from earlier still wet._

_"Dick." Bruce's voice brought him out of his thoughts. He looked at the man questioningly, fiddling with the loose strings on his orange jumpsuit from the Detention Centre that he's still hadn't changed out of. Bruce must have noticed this, because then he opened a door, and after Dick walked shyly in, said, "This will be your room. My room will be just down the hallway, the last door on the right. Here's your luggage." He set down the luggage next to the fancy king-sized bed near the back of the room. "Change out of your clothes and you can go down to the kitchen for a snack from Alfred. Alright?"_

_Dick nodded, so Bruce exited the room and shut the door._

_But a sudden thought struck Dick. Bruce hadn't told him where the kitchen was in this gigantic building that was called a house!_

The heroes also realized this. A few of them closed their eyes to try and contain the laughter bubbling up in them at the sight of Dick's hilarious face of realisation.

Batman finally discovered why Dick was so intent on having blueprints of the manor a few weeks after he'd moved in.

_"Sir? I mean, Mr. Wayne?" Dick shuffled to the wooden door, gingerly turned the gleaming doorknob clockwise as he poked his head out, peering down both sides of the hallway. "Where is the...?"_

_But Bruce was nowhere to be seen._

"Father!" Damian exclaimed. "You should have explained to Grayson completely before you pulled a Batman!"

"A Batman?" Mal deadpanned, an arm slung lovingly over Karen's shoulders.

Jason snorted, then pretended to cough as a cover-up when Batman began Batglaring at him.

_Dick bit his lip in frustration and uncertainty, but decided that he should change his clothes first like Bruce had told him to before figuring out where the kitchen was - via exploring. He shut the door again and opened his luggage, taking out the few articles of clothing he had and setting them neatly in piles on the bed._

_Or at least, he was about to begin doing so. Until he found the stuffed elephant he'd spent the last few months wishing for in the Detention Centre while he was being abused._

_Zitka._

_"Zitka!" More tears slid down his cheeks and off his chin, although this time they were tears of joy. He'd never thought that he'd been able to see his precious elephant again. Dick snatched the plushie from the luggage as though it was going to disappear if he didn't take it soon, and hugged it fiercely as a relieved grin spread across his face._

The female superheroes were fangirling and squealing over the pure innocence of Dick while the male heroes were smiling (they too could not deny the fact that young Dick was very adorable).

_Dick, after several more long seconds of cuddling with his plushie, tenderly set the worn toy aside to actually begin taking his belongings out. The first shirt he saw was a Batman shirt. He remembered it to be a birthday gift from his cousin, who knew that he admired the Dark Knight. Next there was a Superman shirt. Superman was perhaps a wonderful hero in Dick's opinion, especially with the amazing superpowers, but he knew that without the Kryptonian powers Superman was nothing - simply an ordinary man. But the Batman, if you took away his suit and Bat-tools, he could still be a frickin' awesome ninja who could still kick butt easily._

_(But also because he was the goddamn Batman.)_

_"And ninja is greater than normal person. Batman wins," Dick concluded out loud._

Batman had never been more proud of nine-year-old Dick Grayson.

_After several more shirts, Dick reached the bottom of his luggage._

_Now, the only article of clothing left in the bag was his Flying Grayson suit._

_The blood was still on the smooth fabric, a cruel reminder of what had happened. The R symbol on the left breast was tainted with a sickening brown-red color, and a few threadbare patches could be seen throughout the costume due to poor handling of careless men._

_Another pang struck Dick's heart, but there were no more tears left for him to cry. Try as he might, his eyes were completely dry and could not produce enough water for teardrops. Plus, he was too tired for crying, and his face was beginning to cramp up from all the grieving as well._

_So Dick instead snapped shut the luggage, pushing it under the bed so that he wouldn't trip over it sometime in the future. He couldn't bear to take that suit out, not so soon after the ill-fated death of his parents. He decided to wear the Superman shirt with a pair of white jean shorts his size that he had found in the closet of the - not his,_ the _\- bedroom_ _(how creepy)_ _. But it matched the Superman shirt, and it looked like something his_ _mamă would piece together for him to wear whenever the Graysons were heading out. He kept his battered, too-small tennis shoes on though, seeing as he did not have another pair, and began making his way towards the door. But something then caught on his foot and -_

_THUD!_

_"Owie," Dick muttered dazedly into the cold, hardwood floor as he lay down in a prostrate position._

"Dickiebird! No! That's why you should watch where you're going!" Wally screeched like an overprotective mother. The other vigilantes stared at him with miniscule smirks on their faces at seeing the ginger act like that.

But as for Artemis, Wally did this EVERY SINGLE DAY while they lived in the same apartment, and usually he kept the screeching/scolding up for nearly an hour before stopping and repeating the entire process again three hours later. Stubbed a toe? An hour of Wally chastising her on not being careful. A paper cut? How dare you! ...More scolding. Hit her funny bone on the shopping cart at the grocery store? Yet more scolding. It was very endearing and let Artemis know that Wally  _did_  care for her, but it was also very bothersome at times; but as of now, it was leaning more towards the latter.

"Baywatch," she groaned, hanging her head and placing a hand over her closed eyes while she smacked Wally's head using the other. "Stop that monstrous wailing!"

Wally gave her an indignant look. "For your information, I was  _singing_ , and I'll have you know that I have a very  _beautiful_  voice."

"Yeah, sure, whatever floats your boat."

"Well, I like water too, 'cause that is what floats my boat. If I even had a boat, I mean. I'll have to remember to ask Dick if he'll buy me a boat."

"BAYWATCH!"

"Right, right! Babe, I gotcha, shutting up now."

_He got up on his arms and knees slowly. He turned around and saw the culprit who had tripped him lying on its side, also on the ground. It was Zitka._

_"Zitka, you could have killed me!" Dick declared dramatically to his stuffed elephant, deciding to have some fun to try and cheer himself up before he sunk too deeply into the thing known as grief. "I trusted you! With my life, and so much more. Oh, how the great die young."_

Jason groaned. "You dick. You're  _so_  dramatic! And even when you were freaking  _nine!"_

Past Dick and Robin grinned at him. "It's part of my - our - charm" they said in a synchronized matter, seriously freaking out the other heroes at how they managed to do it so flawlessly.

"I wish my school's orchestra could be as coordinated as you two just were," Jaime said. "They suck. I mean, sure, they  _do_ play amazingly, but they don't play...  _together_. There's always that one person who goes too fast or too slow. Then it just messes the entire thing up."

"I feel you," Karen agreed. "It used to be like that with the Bumblebees, too."

"Oh, your cheerleading team, right?"

"Yeah."

_Zitka stared blankly at Dick, motionless._

_Dick groaned. "You're not a very good friend, but I love you anyways." He stood up, and after testing his body for any unusual pain from the fall, deemed himself uninjured and placed the elephant on his bed. He gave it a playful glare. "If you trip me again, I'm not gonna be happy."_

_Then he turned around and set out for the doorway a second time._

**_> Time Skip<_ **

_"Left... or right?" He looked both ways from where his bedroom door was. "Why do there have to be so many doors??" He'd already spent several minutes debating over which way he should go, and was no closer to actually deciding in which direction to head. But when he decided to just "screw it, I'm going right", he suddenly remembered that Bruce had led him to the_ right _when bringing him to his room. So if his room was on the_ right _corridor connected to the staircase, then that meant that he should go_ left _to get to the staircase. He abruptly turned on his heels and made his way down the hall as he facepalmed for not thinking about it earlier. If only he was still in his trailer... He would have never gotten lost in_ that _small but cozy home._

 _...The trailer. He missed it already. Dick wondered if Bruce would allow him to visit the family home one day. He hoped so. There were so many good memories made in that trailer. Like that time when his tată accidentally turned on the oven temperature too high when he set the cookie dough that Dick and his mamă made inside... they had a good laugh over that. His tată holding the tray of burnt cookies in his oven-mitted hands and his mamă clutching her sides as she let out a tinkling laughter... They_ may _be good memories, yet they were painful as well._

_He was so distracted by the memories bombarding him that he didn't notice himself drifting to the side of the hallway, accidentally scraping his right bicep on the sharp corner of an artifact - a table, most likely antique._

_"Gah!" He slung his left hand over his chest and onto his right arm. The table had unfortunately injured him right where a bruise from the Detention Centre was. "Owwww..."_

"Dick..." M'gann muttered sadly. She subconsciously held Past Dick #1 to her body more tighter, just remembering the wounds of Dick after he had gotten out of the Juvenile Detention Centre. Apparently so did the others, because the clenching of jaws and fists could be seen if one looked closely.

"The sooner we get out of here, the better. No one will stop me from killing those people who have hurt Dickiebird. End of discussion." Jason scowled furiously, clicking the safety off of one of his pistols although he couldn't hurt any of them in Nightwing's mind. "No one hurts my brother and gets away with it."

"Never," Damian agreed as he fingered his infamous katana, just waiting for a chance to use them. He was too angry to stand still, so he began getting restless as he paced in a few circles.

Batman remained silent, but inwardly he was seething and cursing those who hurt  _his_  little robin to the depths of Tartarus.

(Hey, who said the Batman didn't have time to read books? Percy Jackson was an amazing series, and Heroes of Olympus? Fantastic! And don't forget Magnus Chase. ALL of those books were good reads. Bruce also had all of the books for all of the series in his library besides Magnus Chase, but that was because the series was so far incomplete. But he was willing to be the first person to lay a hand on the new books other than Rick Riordan. Everybody in the Batfamily had read the entire series of both Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus sometime during their time in the Wayne Manor. It was an unspoken rule that you had to, if you had been either a Robin or a Batgirl.)

_Dick was reminded of his injuries from the Centre. As if on cue, the aforementioned injuries began hurting like crazy. It was always so confusing to understand why the human body was like that, making you act in ways that you don't want to but do because that was what you thought of at the moment. You thought of coughing? Congratulations, you just coughed out loud. You think of blinking? Now you're blinking manually. You think of breathing? Now you're also breathing manually. You think of swallowing? You instinctively want to swallow suddenly._

_But now Dick wished the human body was like that, so complex. He just walk without feeling pain. He also wished that he wasn't over thinking this, like now._

_"Time for a detour. Where's the bathroom? There's usually a first aid kit under the sink. I mean, there_ should _be." Dick said to himself. Then, just because he was bored, he began to speak in a different language. "¿Dónde está el cuarto de baño?" He continued on his way down the hall, opening doors as he went, until he located a gleaming bathroom. "Ah,_ _está aquí."_

_He went in and stared into the mirror. He spotted the various bruises scattered across his pale skin, and an open wound that hadn't quite healed yet. Dick grimaced as he remembered Gabriel shoving him to the ground, a gash created from the sharp edge of the pathetic cot, as the older and buffer boy began beating him up, punching and kicking and..._

_No. He didn't want to think of that. So instead he opened the cabinet below the sink, and just as he thought, there was a first aid kit. It had the proper supplies inside, from burn gel to bandaids to clean gauze. But Dick just needed to clean to wash his slightly-bleeding wound and then patch it up, so he grabbed a few bandaids and a tiny packet of antiseptic cream buried beneath other thin packets._

_After patching it up with a few hissing noises at the small sting of pain it caused him, Dick neatly put back the kit and exited the bathroom, now heading to the kitchen for real._

The memory faded and dwindled away into shimmering dust that settled and then flickered out as well.

"That's it??" Wally demanded. "That is disappointing, I thought that we were gonna see what happens! I wanna know what's gonna take place next!"

"Well I guess the memory was getting too long to continue," Past Robin said. "And the author wants to finish this chapter real quick, so she's going to end it there."

"The author? What author?"

"Are you okay, Dick?"

"The A U T H O R." Past Dick said the word slowly and loudly. "Oh, haha look, I said 'AU Thor'. Thor from an alternate universe."

"What the hell, man?" Jason gave him a look. "What author? What's 'thor'?"

"You mean  _who's_  Thor. And the author, duh. Okay she wants to sleep so say buh-bye, guys!"

"WHO DA FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???"

Batman took off a glove calmly amidst all the confusion and set his hand on Past Dick's forehead - and then later Past Robin's - to see if they had fevers. They didn't. Their temperatures were average.

"DICK, BRO - "

"Alas, there is a door so nicely waiting for us a few paces over there in that direction. Let us not provoke it into leaving without us. Woe me! I must take my leave! And I am afraid I do not give any 'f's, as they say, to what you are saying, Wallace Rudolph West. Well, the only 'f' I give right now is 'flawless', but since you guys already know that I needn't say any more. And seriously, let's go!" Past Dick interrupted his older best friend and dashed past the speedster into another door.

"As the author commands!" Past Robin was right behind with a mischievous smirk on his face as he lept into the darkness of the next door as well.

"OH NO YOU DON'T, COME BACK IMMEDIATELY YOUNG MAN!!! WE ARE  _NOT_  DONE DISCUSSING YOUR SANITY! LET'S TRY TO NOT HAVE A REPEAT OF WHEN I WAS TEACHING YOU HOW TO WOO ZATANNA FOUR YEARS AGO!!"

"Offering food does not woo girls," Zatanna told him. Then she paused. "Wait, actually, girls really like food and we really like eating but if you wanna woo us, do it the right way."

"It is impossible to understand a woman's mind!" Wally pointed out in exasperation.

"Why are we even having this seriously irrelevant conversation? We should follow the two Dicks..." Impulse trailed off.

Jason laughed. "You said 'Dicks'!"

Suddenly Past Dick's head popped out of the door. "Guys, the author is getting impatient. I highly recommend that you just drop everything and just come through this door. Her parents are yelling at her to sleep and although she will actually be reading Fanfictions on her phone later in bed she still wants y'all to hurry so that she can retire for the night. The author would also really, really, really like to return to her Spider-Man Fanfiction, because apparently her favorite character has just died and she wants to find out what Peter is going to do next -"

"I literally do not have any idea of what you are saying and I still think you should visit a therapist and all that crap, but of course! NIGHTWING FTW!" Wally dove into the door.

Everyone else followed. FINALLY.

Suddenly a guy in a red and black bodysuit appeared. He was holding a chimichanga in his hands, and was pouting behind his mask although nobody could see (1 because he was wearing a mask, and 2 because there was no one around to see him anyhoo).

"diD SOmEoNe saY MaH bOi sPiDEr-mAN?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! I'm actually not done with this story yet, but I cannot figure out how to change the statistics from "Complete" to "Incomplete". I apologize for my unexplained mistake, as I am an amateur when it comes to A03 (I just joined this month). I'll try to find a way to change it soon! Thanks for your patience. :))


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